Customer Reviews

The Mathematical Recreations of Lewis Carroll: Pillow Problems and a Tangled Tale (Dover Recreational Math)

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This book contains two publications by Lewis Carroll.

Pillow Problems contains 72 elementary mathematical problems together with their solutions. The problems are hard. The level is comparable to mathematical Olympiad material. The solutions are clear but sometimes use idioms and methods that were in use in the 19th century (like the use of "analysis" and "synthesis" as phases in a geometric proof). The subjects of the problems are geometry, algebra and probability. I try to solve them when I am sleepless in bed, maybe my pillow is not right (at least for some of the problems).

A Tangled Tale is more like the Lewis Carroll one expects. Problems are presented as part of an illustrated (tangled) tale. There are ten tales (called "knots") that contain really nice and demanding problems. There is also a section containing the solutions. The text originally appeared as a monthly publication. Solutions were send in and these solutions were used in the text to illustrate common mistakes, to produce nice solutions and to make fun.

If you like mathematical problems this book should be of interest to you. If you are just interested in Lewis Carroll then be prepared, the Pillow Problems will be enigmatic and A Tangled Tale will be nonsense, but not the nonsense you know from the Alice book.

Charles L. Dodgson was a Mathematical Lecturer at Oxford, better known as Lewis Carroll. This collection of mathematical puzzles was compiled in 1893, following years of insomnia. Dodgson claimed to have solved every puzzle, without pencil and paper, during his sleepness nights. This incredible feat is difficult to comprehend, even for such a genius. The complexity and good humor of the problems and tales are suggestive of his well-loved "Alice in Wonderland". Dodgson also hints at his pioneering the field of symbolic logic.

As an Alice in Wonderland collector, it was fun to have something new, but it is such nonesense, it will just sit in my collection.