Customer Reviews

Amusements in Mathematics (Dover Recreational Math)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This excellent collection of teasers has inferential problems in arithmetic and algebra, and includes geometry, mazes, magic squares and a lot of chess-board tours. The answers are often gems in themselves -- things mentioned in passing and left to the reader to establish -- e.g. "... of the twelve ways that eight queens can be placed on a chessboard without attacking one another..." At twelve years old I spent many an hour finding those twelve ways. There is a small problem with the age of the book, first published in 1917. You could buy an airplane for 400 pounds ($1,680) then, and the money puzzles in the first chapter assume familiarity with British pounds, shillings and pence (and ha'pennies and farthings). The Dover edition of 1958 included a preface on British coins and stamps, and another on the game of cricket, but this edition was in 8vo rather than the original quarto, making some of the diagrams very small. I received my copy in 1936, at age eleven, and have cherished it ever since. I still find challenges in it in spite of my Masters degree in Mathematical Physics!

I have this paper book, but wanted a copy for my Kindle DX. There are a few versions for the Kindle, but I shelled out a few bucks for the one that said it was optimized for larger readers.

Although it reads well, and there are illustrations, the Table of Contents doesn't work. I mean, it is there (you can see it), but it is non-functional. A bit diappointing, since I'll have to tag the locations for the chapters myself.

I think Amazon should have a bullet list when selling electronic books that tell you things like this.

I'll keep the book anyway, but there was no reason that whoever threw this up there didn't take the time to do it right.

With 430 puzzles, problems, paradoxes, and brain teasers, this book is a mammoth puzzle collection, compared with most math teasers and puzzles book available. But what is important is not the quantity, but the quality and charm of the problems presented. Each problem is presented with a full length solutions that makes the book absolutely an instructive experience for the reader. In some cases the author even discussed on how others had attacked and failed the problems.

Additionally the book is fully illustrated with clever diagrams and sketches, which make the reading even more pleasant for everyone. You, your freinds and family will spend many hours trying the vast array of puzzles prented in this book.

This review is for the kindle edition.

Unlike the other reviewer who had no working TOC, but had illustrations, my copy had a functional TOC and NO illustrations. I think the figures and illustrations are essential, and without them the book is worthless.

As others have mentioned, the free Kindle version is not worth the space it takes up because the illustrations are missing. Reviewed on a Kindle 2.

the type set is like a stream of conscious, the preface just runs right in to the first puzzles, and it just goes on from there.

most important, this book contains many puzzles that refer to illustrations which are nowhere to be found. makes the thing completely worthless, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.

I have no expectations regarding formatting of free kindle books, and this one did not disappoint. That said, I totally love these puzzles, particularly the ones involving Brittish currency--they add a degree of difficulty that stretches me to the max--and yet you can always move on to the next one and try again. The age puzzles are somewhat easier and probably a better place to begin.

Dudeney was one of the two fathers of puzzles today. Amusements in Mathematics has many of Dudeney's best puzzles. An excellent book.

If I were a math teacher or had kids, this book would be worth good money despite its age. There's a collection of a few hundred math problems, involving money, time, families and other situations. They're good brain teasers.

The book doesn't have the greatest formatting for the Kindle. There are a few errors and it lacks a table of contents and proper markup, but it still works well. The only "downside" I have is that some of the math puzzles are a bit difficult when older British money was used, when the problem is compounded by the fact that you had to use shillings and pence were used, and you mention that you have a half crown and threepence in order to buy something. It's a little confusing but there's a table of conversions in the beginning.

I found this book simply sensational, once it has hundreds of interesting puzzles on math and logic. One learns a lot by reading it.