The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems by Martin Gardner (PDF)

Description

No amateur or math authority can be without this ultimate compendium from America’s best-loved mathematical expert. Whether discussing hexaflexagons or number theory, Klein bottles or the essence of “nothing,” Martin Gardner has single-handedly created the field of “recreational mathematics.” The Colossal Book of Mathematics collects together Gardner’s most popular pieces from his legendary “Mathematical Games” column, which ran in Scientific American for twenty-five years. Gardner’s array of absorbing puzzles and mind-twisting paradoxes opens mathematics up to the world at large, inspiring people to see past numbers and formulas and experience the application of mathematical principles to the mysterious world around them. With articles on topics ranging from simple algebra to the twisting surfaces of Mobius strips, from an endless game of Bulgarian solitaire to the unreachable dream of time travel, this volume comprises a substantial and definitive monument to Gardner’s influence on mathematics, science, and culture. In its twelve sections, The Colossal Book of Math explores a wide range of areas, each startlingly illuminated by Gardner’s incisive expertise. Beginning with seemingly simple topics, Gardner expertly guides us through complicated and wondrous worlds: by way of basic algebra we contemplate the mesmerizing, often hilarious, linguistic and numerical possibilities of palindromes; using simple geometry, he dissects the principles of symmetry upon which the renowned mathematical artist M. C. Escher constructs his unique, dizzying universe. Gardner, like few thinkers today, melds a rigorous scientific skepticism with a profound artistic and imaginative impulse. His stunning exploration of “The Church of the Fourth Dimension,” for example, bridges the disparate worlds of religion and science by brilliantly imagining the spatial possibility of God’s presence in the world as a fourth dimension, at once “everywhere and nowhere.” With boundless wisdom and his trademark wit, Gardner allows the reader to further engage challenging topics like probability and game theory which have plagued clever gamblers, and famous mathematicians, for centuries. Whether debunking Pascal’s wager with basic probability, making visual music with fractals, or uncoiling a “knotted doughnut” with introductory topology, Gardner continuously displays his fierce intelligence and gentle humor. His articles confront both the comfortingly mundane―”Generalized Ticktacktoe” and “Sprouts and Brussel Sprouts”―and the quakingly abstract―”Hexaflexagons,” “Nothing,” and “Everything.” He navigates these staggeringly obscure topics with a deft intelligence and, with addendums and suggested reading lists, he informs these classic articles with new insight. Admired by scientists and mathematicians, writers and readers alike, Gardner’s vast knowledge and burning curiosity reveal themselves on every page. The culmination of a lifelong devotion to the wonders of mathematics, The Colossal Book of Mathematics is the largest and most comprehensive math book ever assembled by Gardner and remains an indispensable volume for the amateur and expert alike.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly This weighty collection, containing 50 of what the Annotated Alice annotator and popular science journalist considers his best Scientific American “Mathematical Games” columns, is sure to please the relatively small but intensely loyal coterie of Gardner fans. Arranged in 12 broad categories (arithmetic and algebra, plane geometry, topology, infinity, etc.), these pieces cover subjects that will delight recreational math buffs, such as Penrose tiles, hypercubes, Klein bottles and fractal music. In addition to an up-to-date bibliography, each section includes a new, sometimes lengthy addendum, which should be the main hook for those who already own the 15 volumes of Gardner’s complete Scientific American columns. While books on math for general audiences by authors such as Amir Aczel have been in vogue of late, they’ve tended to focus on personalities and to avoid equations. Since this collection is filled with problems and expressions (illustrated with 320 line drawings) that require solving with pencil and paper, its appeal should be mainly limited to puzzle nuts, but Gardner’s elegant style could draw in new aficionados. An enemy of charlatanry and pretension, who appreciates the beauty and complexity of language as well as numbers (and still actively writing at age 86), Gardner remains a model of clear prose, understated wit and intellectual honesty. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Review “For more than half a century, Martin Gardner has been the single brightest beacon defending rationality and good science. . . . He is also one of the most brilliant men and gracious writers I have known.” ― Stephen Jay Gould About the Author Martin Gardner (1914-2010) is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on Lewis Carroll and his work. The author of more than a hundred books, he wrote the “Mathematical Games” column for Scientific American for twenty-five years and has been hailed by Douglas Hofstadter as “one of the great intellects produced in this country in this century.” Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Martin Gardiner was so great at discussing couplex subjects in an understandable way. And the book is good in that it goes through a lot of different significant fields of math. I just finished reading a chapter on geometric figures with a constant diameter. He starts out saying how you can move an object by loading it on a platform and then place logs under the platform and roll it along, when one log moves out the rear you pick it up and move it to the front. He points out that most people (me included) would assume that a circular log is the only shape that would work. In fact there are an infinity of shapes and he shows how to draw them.

⭐I have never read any books on “recreational mathematics” so didn’t know quite what to expect from this book–in general I found it entertaining and interesting, with a broad range of topics, including physics, statistics, logical paradoxes, higher dimensions, etc. You don’t really have to be a math person to enjoy this book; almost anyone interested in stimulating topics should find at least parts of it interesting.The book consists of numerous short articles with bibliographies for each. If one article bores you, move on to the next… I found the articles on statistics, logical paradoxes, a 2D Universe (Planiverse) and others very interesting and enjoyable. It is important to understand that this book is not a puzzle book per se; although almost every articles includes some task for hard-core readers to perform (“Prove that…”, or “How many…”), it is really intended as reading material.A few negatives: the articles almost all seem to have been written in the 1950s or 1960s (!); each article has an addendum which attempts to bring it up to date. Although this didn’t matter that much to me, since I have never read anything on recreational mathematics, I doubt that much of the material would be new for anyone that reads the topic regularly. Similarly, it would have been more interesting to discover what topics are currently “hot” in this field. Also, the author spends too much time for my taste on trivial mathematical games such as folding paper into different shapes rather than on really thought-provoking mathematical topics (purely a personal preference, I suppose).

⭐After enjoying Martin Gardners column for years as an avid reader of Scientific American, I was doing some research on River Meanders, and was reminded through that of SA and MG. It’s great to have so many of his columns collected in one omnibus volume.

⭐A great book from a puzzle master.

⭐My college graduated grandson was excited getting these books as a gift!

⭐Great book and in good condition!

⭐Birthday gift for 11-year old. She loved it and said she would devote herself to 5 pages per day on it. Win-win.

⭐I read it when I have spare time, always learn something new, love it

⭐Book as desribed, fast delivery.

⭐A book which every math student should have.

⭐Beyond my ability and puzzles too fiendish for me (Maths A-Levels 1978 and recently returned to topic)

⭐enjoyable

⭐Excellent book

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