Customer Reviews

Riddles of the Sphinx (New Mathematical Library)

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I would be thoroughly justified in causing my online thesaurus to heat up and spout smoke from my searching for new superlatives to describe the mathematical writing of Martin Gardner. His problems and puzzles have been a constant source of interest and entertainment from the first time I encountered them decades ago, and this collection is more of the same. These thirty six puzzles were first published in Gardners regular column that used to appear in Isaac Asimovs Science Fiction Magazine, which is where I first read them.
Gardner has been quoted as saying that the reason that he does so well in writing about mathematics is that he really doesnt know that much about it. I consider this his only serious published mistake. He has shown an amazing depth of understanding of most areas of mathematics, which is necessary for one to write about it so well.
These puzzles cover the usual broad spectrum of a Gardner collection, everything from the magic of numbers to encounters with bizarre aliens is the setting for a puzzle. Detailed solutions to all are included, some of which are in serial form, with answer number one raising a question solved in answer two, sometimes all the way to answer four.
No one has done more to make mathematics interesting and palatable to the general public than Martin Gardner. Whether he is writing problems or puzzles, he is capable of turning a math problem into a story or a story into a math problem. If he were ever to grab a piece of chalk and start teaching, he would put the rest of us to shame.