Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games [CD-ROM]

Martin Gardner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0883855453 | ISBN-13: 978-0883855454 | Publication Date: May 2005 | Edition: Cdr

The entire collection of Martin Gardner's Scientific American columns on one searchable CD! Martin Gardner’s “Mathematical Games” column ran in Scientific American from 1956 to 1986. In these columns Gardner introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the delights of mathematics and of puzzles and problem solving. His column broke such stories as Rivest, Shamir and Adelman on public-key cryptography, Mandelbrot on fractals, Conway on Life, and Penrose on tilings. He enlivened classic geometry and number theory and introduced readers to new areas such as combinatorics and graph theory. The CD contains the following books: 1. Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions 2. The Second Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions 3. New Mathematical Diversions 4. The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions 5. Martin Gardner’s 6th Book of Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American 6. Mathematical Carnival 7. Mathematical Magic Show 8. Mathematical Circus 9. The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix 10. Wheels, Life, and Other Mathematical Amusements 11. Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Entertainers 12. Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments 13. Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers 14. Fractal Music, Hypercards, and more Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American 15. The Last Recreations: Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications. A profile and interview with Martin Gardner is included in this collection

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

Gardner's column, which ran in this magazine from 1956 to 1986, introduced thousands of readers to the delights of puzzles and problem solving. His column also broke important mathematical stories--on cryptography, fractals, the game of Life, and tilings. Now all these columns are gathered on one, searchable CD, ending frustration for many fans. Gardner, who turns 91 this month, continues to write on a variety of topics.

Editors of Scientific American

About the Author

Martin Gardner is the author of more than 65 books and countless articles, ranging over science, mathematics, philosophy, literature, and conjuring. He has inspired and enlightened generations with the delights of mathematical recreations, the amazing phenomena of numbers, magic, puzzles, and the play of ideas. He is our premier writer on recreational mathematics, a great popularizer of science and a debunker of pseudoscience.

Product Details

• CD-ROM: 4500 pages
• Publisher: Mathematical Association of America; Cdr edition (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883855453
• ISBN-13: 978-0883855454
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous content, some image transfer issues, April 7, 2007

By 

D. Neff - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games (CD-ROM)

Martin Gardner's 30 years of Mathematical Games columns in Scientific American magazine are some of the most fun and interesting reading I've enjoyed. I searched out back issues in the high school library, had my own subscription, and collected as many of the books as I could find. When I was looking for one of the books I didn't have and found this complete collection, I immediately ordered it. There are very few authors in any field who are as clear in their writing and as enthusiastic in their delivery as he is. The content is easily worth the full 5 stars.

But the reason I dropped the rating to 4 for this particular edition is its sometimes haphazard quality of image scans. In the worst cases, the color or shading in the original figures is now black-and-white and of such high contrast that important distinctions are mostly or completely lost. For example, the reversi piece colors in figure 29 of "New Mathematical Diversions" are indistinguishable as are the four-color map areas (of all things!) in figure 43. Many figures show moire patterns from rescanning the original halftones. Yet other figures have been reproduced with much greater care, even in color. Some pages with landscape layout have been rotated for easier reading but others have not. In a few cases, the black-and-white photographs in my books have been replaced with much better color photos. Some books are missing a back cover scan.

The oddest example though, and somehow in keeping with the topic, is figure 109 in "Fractal Music". In my copy of the book, this is a reproduction of Magritte's "The Two Mysteries" and the caption says so. In this edition, it is a redrawn version and the caption now says it is "a caricature" of the Magritte work. At least 4 of the books appear to be affected by poor images and at least 6 of them appear to be fine.

Despite these problems, it's very handy to have the complete set of books in one place. But I'll be keeping the 4 books with the bad scans until a new edition fixes them.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good news - no DRM, January 7, 2007

By 

Patrick Mueller (Apex, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games (CD-ROM)

I got this for Christmas. Knowing it was a set of PDF files, I was hesitant to ask for it, because I was a little concerned that it would somehow be DRM-limited so I couldn't print it or something. Especially given this comment from the maa.org site: "Macintosh users MUST install [Adobe Acrobat] Reader on their computer to use this CD."

Good news. No DRM. I was able to load the files using Preview on the mac, but they didn't perform all that well. Not that that matters. The books are basically scans, as near as I can tell. The books perform as well (or not) under Adobe Reader 8.0.0. No problems printing. You can also copy/paste the text out, which is interesting; the books are basically scans, as I said, so someone did some OCR work on them as well.

What I've been doing is printing an article out every day for reading on my walk, or when I go to the ... um ... reading room.

Love it! Fond memories from when I used to read these in SciAm; these were the primary reason I read SciAm in the first place.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A searchable collection of ALL of Gardner's Scientific American columns, August 4, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games (CD-ROM)

Millions of people around the world have had their interest in mathematics lit, kindled or fed by the writings of Martin Gardner. His regular column "Mathematical Recreations" appeared in "Scientific American" for over a quarter of a century and those articles were readable, entertaining and highly educational.
This CD-ROM is a collection of all his articles organized according to the book in which they appeared. The books are:

*) Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions
*) The Second Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions
*) New Mathematical Diversions
*) The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions
*) Martin Gardner's 6th Book of Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American
*) Mathematical Carnival
*) Mathematical Magic Show
*) Mathematical Circus
*) The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix
*) Wheels, Life and Other Mathematical Amusements
*) Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Bewilderments
*) Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers . . . And the Return of Dr. Matrix
*) Fractal Music, Hypercards and More . . .
*) The Last Recreations: Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications

The opening page displays icons of all of the books and clicking on any icon switches the display to a split screen where the left section contains the table of contents and the right contains the text of the book. Clicking on any entry in the TOC takes you to that article. The collection is searchable, so if you have only a dim recollection of an article you read years ago, you will still be able to find it.
Martin Gardner is a very humble man, arguing that his skill in mathematical exposition is due to the fact that he does not know very much mathematics. He claims that this forced him to research his subject thoroughly before he began writing the article. I find this the only questionable position that he has ever taken; in my opinion the man is a mathematical genius.