Mathematical Quickies: 270 Stimulating Problems with Solutions (Dover Recreational Math) [Paperback]

Charles W. Trigg (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Recreational Math | Publication Date: October 1, 1985

Nearly 300 mathematical brain-teasers from the fields of arithmetic, algebra, plane and solid geometry, trigonometry, number theory, and general recreational mathematics. From simple to complex; all challenge the reader to devise solutions more elegant than the ones provided. Offers hours of brain-bending amusement. 270 problems. 121 illustrations. Solutions. List of Sources.

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (October 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486249492
• ISBN-13: 978-0486249490
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,487,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Problems with easy, quick solutions if you approach it right, July 10, 2000

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mathematical Quickies: 270 Stimulating Problems with Solutions (Dover Recreational Math) (Paperback)

The best problems conform to the following pattern:

1) Easy to state and understand.
2) Appear difficult to solve and in fact are hard to solve if the approach is wrong.
3) Easy to solve if the proper techniques are applied.


All 270 problems in this collection satisfy these criteria. Taken from the `Quickies' column in Mathematics Magazine, these are excellent problems that will tax you if you approach them from the wrong direction. However, once stated, the solution is obvious, and often can be understood by someone with only an advanced high school mathematics background. These problems or their logical variants, form a pool of problems from which you can find many to serve as either challenge problems or even slightly offbeat examination problems. My favorite is the following:

Ten letters are placed in ten pre-addressed envelopes at random. What is the probability that exactly nine letters were placed in the proper envelope?

The answer is zero, since if nine are placed in the correct envelope the tenth must have been as well.

I first read this book about ten years ago and was impressed with the brevity, elegance and at times obvious nature of the solutions. When reading it again in preparation for this review, those emotions were revisited.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not all such quickies, July 3, 2005

By 

V. Natarajan (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mathematical Quickies: 270 Stimulating Problems with Solutions (Dover Recreational Math) (Paperback)

Many of these problems are indeed quite elegant, but way too many (generally the geometric ones) require the use of theorems that even many math majors may not know -- this is more for the "contest math" genius in high school more than necesasrily a math major, and even they may not know the theorems required.

And not all of these problems are necessarily "quickies". For instance, one asks multiplcation of a very large number by 125 -- the quickie solution is to multiply by 1000 and divide by 8, but this is not even so "quick".