Customer Reviews

AHA! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight

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This is an ageless book for the people who love to think and do it well. A paradox is a situation where a supposedly valid chain of reasoning is performed and yet you end up with a conclusion that cannot be true. In many cases, the paradox is due to imprecise definitions of words or statements that are so broad in scope that they refer to themselves. For example, when a Cretan says, "All Cretans are liars." The scope of the sentence is so broad that it includes the sentence itself. Therefore, if the statement is true, the person saying it must be lying and if the statement is false, then the Cretan is telling the truth, which means that according to the statement he must be lying.
Many of the paradoxes are resolved by applying a simple analysis. Some of them are easily understood if presented in the appropriate context and no one does this better than Martin Gardner. He is truly unique in his ability to take a difficult mathematical concept and make it understandable. During his decades as the author of a regular mathematical column in Scientific American, he has done more to advance the progress of mathematics and science than anyone else in history. By turning so many young people on to mathematics, he is one of the intellectual grandfathers of hundreds of thousands of people.
This book is a delight and contains many problems that can be used in courses in mathematics, reasoning and philosophy. I strongly recommend it.

Those who have read any of Martin Gardner's famous books know that he is the master at explaining difficult concepts in witty and precise language. This book is no exception! It's a great book to buy for children AND adults alike.

I encourage readers of this to purchase "Aha, Insight!" by the same author, and his "The (first,second,etc...) scientific american book of mathematical puzzles and diversions"

Aha! Gotcha is filled with very different types of puzzles than aha! Insight, which has many problems to solve. This book just presents many fun paradoxes that make you use your head, and while some of them are problems you have to take some time to solve, most are short paradoxical situations that you can think about for a short while and then go on the next page. It is easy to read, and Gardner again shows his skill in explaining interesting phenomena in a clear and interesting way. All the problems are good exercises on logical thinking and introduces various concepts of mathematics and statistics without seeming like you're studying. It is insightful enough for adults, but I think children would be able to understand these concepts too if they are interested.

This amazingly useful book presents the concept of paradoxes in a comfortable, light format that makes it easily presentable to children in addition to the fun cartoon drawings that accompany every paradox. Simple explanations allow enough depth to encourage further explanation of the topic. In addition, it is helpful for writing reports about paradoxes.

Fascinating, informative, fun to read, etc., etc., this book contains short, one to two page entries on about eighty puzzles and paradoxes, divided into such categories as logic, probability, and time. Among my favorites is the vanishing leprechaun, a picture that sometimes has fourteen and other times has fifteen leprechauns in it: By switching two parts of the picture you can see a leprechaun vanish right in front of your eyes.

(Note: Another reviewer maintains that there is a mistake on the "Three-Shell Game" on p. 100. Actually, there isn't, since Gardner never states that the dealer gives the player the opportunity to switch.)

Intriguing and boggling concepts presented in a very relaxed, friendly manner. It's explained with funny little cartoon drawings, which are perfectly effective. It couldn't really be any better.

A must-have for anyone who wants their head to spin; that's the whole point of reading about paradox, isn't it?

you will not find them in this book. It is not the kind of book you spend long times to figure out the answers. For example, for many pages in the first section, the author talks about "this sentence is wrong" type of paradoxes. I recommend "aha! Insight" if you are after brainteasers.

I recently dusted off my copy of this that had been sitting long on the shelf. That turned out to be a very good thing.

Martin Gardner takes a look at paradoxes and makes them very easy to understand, entertaining, and highly absorbing. He takes the reader from the easiest to understand (the liar's paradox) to the more difficult, including mathematical ones. He describes paradoxes that entertained the ancient Greeks; paradoxes in the Bible; and paradoxes created by modern writers and comedians. Most of the paradoxes are covered in one or two pages, and each comes with cartoon illustrations to make them easy to understand. The book is both serious and delightfully funny. If you are looking for something that is escapist yet pertinent to real life, you'll enjoy this short book that is 160 pages long.

There are places where Mr. Gardner's grammar is a little less than clear. I found myself having to read an occasional sentence where the structure wasn't as clear as it could be. However, this is easily overlooked because of the content. It's fairly easy to rearrange a sentence so that you can understand what he is saying, but for the most part, the writing is lucid and easily understood.

This is the kind of book that you can read, two or three pages at a time. This makes for a good coffee table book. It is also the kind of book that can be used to find out more about a certain kind of paradox by looking it up by name on the Internet when you want more material to illustrate it. Mr. Gardner does not pull these paradoxes out of thin air. Most are widely known by either philosophers, writers, comedians, and even mathematicians.

If you're looking for entertainment that is good brain food, you'll find this book very fulfilling. Get it. Read it. It's both entertaining and thought provoking.

This book is the best and funniest ever written about paradoxes and other brain-teasing stuff.

If it is your first Martin Gardner book, I really recommend it.

This is not a book of logic puzzles, but a book for people who love logic and puzzles. This is a book full of beautifully simple illuminations of some very tricky stuff. Mostly for older kids and adults. My only wish is that the graphics/layout had been done differently. The illustrations and words next to them are just too small.