Are You as Smart as You Think?: 150 Original Mathematical, Logical, and Spatial-Visual Puzzles for All Levels of Puzzle Solvers (Hardcover)

by Terry Stickels (Author), Will Shortz (Introduction) "1. A box of candy can be divided equally (without cutting pieces) among 2, 3, or 7 people..." (more)
Key Phrases: Kansas State, New Mexico, Northern Iowa (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Everyone who is fascinated by logic, spatial-visual and/or math puzzles knows Terry Stickles' name. His puzzles have tantalized and often stumped not only super-adept puzzle mavens, but the rest of us. He has published books, puzzles, articles about puzzling, and sets of puzzle cards -- all eagerly snapped up by those thousands who can't get enough of brainteasers. His puzzles have appeared on National Public Radio's puzzle program, in Discover and Games Magazines, and he was asked to provide challenges for the recent World Puzzle Convention.

But one trait in particular sets Stickles' teasers above so many others: every one is original. Stickles agrees that recycling is a public duty, but not, he says, when it comes to puzzles. So whether one starts at the beginning section of So You Think You're Smart, Huh? where the author is kind enough to launch us with more gentle challenges (but still challenges, and don't forget it!) or the latter section, where he gets really tough, the reader will find wonderful fun, refreshing brain workouts, and the deep satisfaction of matching wits with the country's most prominent puzzlemaker --and coming out ahead. Sometimes.


About the Author
Terry Stickles lives in Rochester, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (March 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312209118
• ISBN-13: 978-0312209117
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #882,755 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!, March 9, 2000

By	Michael Michalko (Churchville, New York USA) - See all my reviews

I'm the author of "Thinkertoys" and "Cracking Creativity" and, generally read as many books as I can that relate to thinking. Terry Stickels, in my opinion, is America's Puzzle Master and has produced another great collection of original puzzles. Over the years, I've become a great fan of Terry and the way he makes me think. This book is superb. If you like puzzles, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It's a hoot!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not killer puzzles, February 27, 2001

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

According to my performance in solving these puzzles, the answer to the question in the title is "pretty close." I was able to get many of them after only a few seconds, although admittedly some did stump me. The collection of 150 puzzles are original to the author, but the forms of most are in accordance with many time-honored formulas. Finding the next number in a sequence, starting with a word and changing a single letter at a time to transform it into another word are well-known methods of creating puzzles. Other classic problems are those involving letters placed in an unusual form in order to suggest a longer message and drawing the minimal number of lines so that all dots in a figure are on a line.
The book is split into two sections, warm-ups and killers, with the latter advertised as being the hardest imaginable. That goal is not achieved. Granted, the killer puzzles are harder, but quite frankly some of them are almost obvious. For example, the message in

DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY
CAST CAST CAST CAST

is not difficult to see. Another example is to find the general formula for the terms of the infinite sequence

3, 11, 19, 27, 35, 43, 51, 59, 67, . . .

Certainly not what I would envision as being examples of killer puzzles. No problem requires more than basic algebra and some require knowledge of different bases of enumeration. For some, simply thinking about them will do the trick.
While I did enjoy reading and working through the puzzles, the level of difficulty appeared to me to be overstated. That is why I gave it four stars rather than five.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How does he do it?, March 6, 2000

By A Customer

My whole family looks forward to Terry Stickel's puzzles and frame games each Sunday in USA Weekend. So when we read that he just published another book -- we picked one up that day. These puzzles are the most original and fun and challenging ever.....thanks, Terry Stickels....keep them coming!