Customer Reviews

536 PUZZLES & CURIOUS PROBLEMS (Five Thirty Six Puzz Prob SL 241)

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This book of puzzles consists of problems that are mathematical or geometric in nature. A good percentage of the puzzles are clever and ingenius, and there are a lot of puzzles. These tend to be quite a bit harder than puzzles and problems in other books of this type, though, and don't lend themselves to a casual environment. You may have to sit at a desk with pencil and paper to solve most of these.

In spite of the many clever problems, there are also many obnoxious ones, too. In some cases, a problem will be explained with an illustration to demonstrate the idea but the solution will conflict with the diagram. In other cases, the "solution" will involve severe liberties with the puzzle rules. For instance: make six boxes with 12 matches... in the solution, the "sixth box" is the teeny square formed by the butt-ends of four matchsticks when arranged in a plus-shape.

I don't have much time to spend doing puzzles, even though I enjoy solving them. I have a small stack of books like this in the restroom. While some of the puzzles in this book can be solved in your head, most can not. Many puzzles have 10 or more variables, require algebra or calculus, or sketching, or many result in non-integer answers. There's a fair amount of brute-force math. This book has therefore been of limited entertainment to me.

This is one of my all-time favorite brain-teaser/ puzzle publications. Great brain exercise and just plain fun to read. I actually have two copies. One I keep on my library shelves in the den and one in the bathroom for making productive brain-exercising use of "down-time"!! I love this book and at 40 yrs old, is NOT DATED at all

This book is primarily a math and numbers puzzle book. There is a section called "combinatorial and topological problems", which are more visual logic. For the most part the puzzles are of medium difficulty and easily solved with pencil and paper in about 10 minutes. Once you start working your way through the book the solutions come a little easier as Dudeney's methods start to become familiar. These are satisfying puzzles, I found only a few that felt like a let down.
This is an excellent brain exercise book for kids starting to tackle algebra.