My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles (Dover Recreational Math) Kindle Edition

I am really enjoying this short book of Martin Gardner's best logic and mathematical puzzles written for his Scientific American column. The problems range widely in difficulty, with some requiring only a few moments of reflection and other laying quite beyond my cognitive powers. The problems are entertainingly presented. Answers are provided in the back of the book; actually, more than half the length of the book is the answers section. Some readers have complained that the answers are inadequate, but I have not found this to be so. Gardner engages in name dropping, particularly in the answers section, probably to add glamour to his column. He will sometimes note "Two Harvard physics students wrote in with this solution," or "John Campbell of Astounding suggested this solution". Campbell was the famous editor who first published Asimov, Heinlein and Van Vogt, inaugurating the "Golden Age" of Science Fiction. Evidently he was smart in lots of ways! It gives a sense of group endeavor, as if everyone is working these problems. The book is short, but well worth the extremely cheap price from Dover. I wondered while reading this book whether American society as it currently exists would be capable of creating a figure like Martin Gardner. His closest analog might be the conservative columnist John Derbyshire, who is really of English provenance. While Gardner's skill set is technical in nature, I would place his work in the entertainment bracket, sort of a sweet by-product of our technico/literary education system. I'm not sure whether puzzles and brain teasers are strictly entertainment, or if they might serve a purpose similar to weight-lifting and conditioning to the athlete. No one has ever filled Gardner's shoes at Scientific American. The reason I fear is that the American education system and the general spiritual impetus of our culture as it now stands are not able to instill the simultaneous virtues in one individual. Of course, Gardner served no essential purpose--most people get by without challenging brain teasers-- but philosophically the question is worth pondering.

I consider myself above average in math skills, maybe even in the 90th percentile, and I had difficulty solving many of these puzzles. But that is not to say that I did not enjoy reading the solutions once I had given up on the questions. The level of difficulty of the puzzles makes it that much more rewarding when you solve one. Of course, since these puzzles have been around for years, you may have already seen some (perhaps many) of them.

My brain was feeling a bit fuzzy, and figured it was time to start giving my aging bean a workout. I decided to research and add in some thinking challenges via puzzles, games, and word problems. I bought this book by Martin Gardner because I am already a fan of his. I love how he appreciates the sciences and skepticism. He had a long history of creating recreational math problems for the every day person to challenge themselves with. These aren't necessarily difficult, but some are a big challenge. It takes some time to readjust ones thinking in order to work through some of these. HENCE, a brain workout-- especially if not used to thinking along these lines. If you are, then this is just a fun maintenance activity. I ended up buying various books and hands on puzzles for myself, then bought duplicates to make a really neat gift basket. I included stuff like Sudoku, crosswords, search a words, then more complicated stuff including this book and some hands on puzzles. Great for just about anyone.

These are for math geeks, not inquisitive puzzle explorers.

These are fun for the needy side. He picked the best out of several decades of writing

I have not had enough time with the book yet to properly review it. I bought it for my 8 year old son who loves math and games. The first thing to notice is that unike other books, the text and graphics in this book are very nice and clear. That is very important when you are trying to concentrate and learn, especially for a younger person. There is another part of the books with answers, they clearly explain every problem in pretty good detail. It is a good mix of puzzles. I recommend this book, will post a better review later.

This is better than expected! It reminds me of pre-employment tests for some of the maintenance and operations jobs I've applied for. Well except less stress and more fun but I love math, applied mechanical aptitude and logic type puzzles. This is great. I'm not a nerd I swear. Lol. Hehehehe. Great books thanks.

My husband loves Martin Gardner, and this book is one of the few he didn't have. It's a thin paperback, but packed with fun puzzles. Because it's thin, it can be bent slightly and slid into a Christmas stocking. Overall a great little book for puzzle lovers.

Giochi Sorprendenti!

Some great challenging puzzles, was a gift for my very bright nephew who is 8 but so far I think he likes it

Amazing and entretaining collection of mathematical puzzles. Specially interesting are the theoretical foundations and references included in the Solutions part.

Me gusto este libro, realmente para poner a trabajar la mente. Apenas he comenzado con los primeros 10 acertijos y me ha mantenido entretenido buena parte de tiempo, te engancha más el ver las respuestas por que se da uno cuenta que hay mas detrás de cada descripción del problema.

😁👍