Fractal Music, Hypercards and More...: Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American Magazine [Paperback]

Martin Gardner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1991 | ISBN-10: 0716721899 | ISBN-13: 978-0716721895

This is a collection of informative extracts from Gardners' "Scientific American" column. Each brain-teasing article has been updated to include new mists, new ideas, and new solutions. Highlights include two new chapters-one on pi and poetry, one on minimal sculpture - and intriguing forays into time reversal, forms of fractions and magic, and an imaginary "Math Zoo" with its own publication, "ZOO-NOOZ".

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: W H Freeman & Co (Sd) (October 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716721899
• ISBN-13: 978-0716721895
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #813,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For 25 of his 95 years, Martin Gardner wrote 'Mathematical Games and Recreations', a monthly column for Scientific American magazine. These columns have inspired hundreds of thousands of readers to delve more deeply into the large world of mathematics. He has also made significant contributions to magic, philosophy, debunking pseudoscience, and children's literature. He has produced more than 60 books, including many best sellers, most of which are still in print. His Annotated Alice has sold more than a million copies. He continues to write a regular column for the Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another work from the master of explaining mathematics, June 24, 2000

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Fractal Music, Hypercards and More...: Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American Magazine (Paperback)

This book is another pillar holding up the banner that proclaims the author to be `the most ubiquitous man in the most ubiquitous of fields." He seems to have no mathematical weaknesses, attacking and explaining every topic with charm, wit, grace and thoroughness. It there is such a thing as mathematical savoir-faire, Martin Gardner possesses it.
In this work, Dr. Gardner explains fractal music, the Bell numbers and their uses, Egyptian fractions, packing circles and squares, mathematical chess problems, imaginary numbers, and tangent circles. He also discusses the career of Charles Saunders Pierce and the book Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter. Negative comments on minimal sculpture and psychic research methods are also included.
Informative as well as entertaining, the works of this author should be part of every liberal education.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

5.0 out of 5 stars profound masterpiece, April 25, 2010

By 

Cosmo "Kramer" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fractal Music, Hypercards and More...: Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American Magazine (Paperback)

Martin Garner is a genius, no doubt. However, he left no contact information for readers to report math errors.
On page 156, Figure 68, I hold the proof that 10 circles can be packed to a 3.81 density. In a clever disclaimer, at least Martin admits on the same page, that proofs exist for 1-9, but not 10. Martin, if you want my solution for 10 circles, [e-mail] is my contact info.