My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles (Math & Logic Puzzles)
by Martin Gardner
from Dover Publications
Killer Sudoku 1: The Deadly New Dimension
by Collins Uk Staff
from Collins
Just when you thought it was safe to pick up a pencil
Killer Su Doku is based on the original Su Doku grid, with the same rules and numbers—1 to 9—but with an added deadly twist. This time there is an element of arithmetic involved and there are few, if any, clues. The aim is to not only complete every row, column, and cube so that it contains the digits 1 to 9, but to also fill in the outlined cubes so they add up to the same number.
Hints to solve the puzzle are hidden in the joined squares where only one combination of numbers applies. In the case of joined squares, if the printed number is 3, it should be 1 and 2 that go into the squares. Likewise, in the case of three joined squares, if the printed number is 6, the only combination possible is 1, 2, and 3.
To add one final fiendish level, each puzzle also has a time worked out by its Japanese creators so you can try to beat the clock.
The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat
by Theoni Pappas
from Wide World Publishing, Tetra
Nonplussed!: Mathematical Proof of Implausible Ideas
by Julian Havil
from Princeton University Press
Math--the application of reasonable logic to reasonable assumptions--usually produces reasonable results. But sometimes math generates astonishing paradoxes--conclusions that seem completely unreasonable or just plain impossible but that are nevertheless demonstrably true: Conclusions that, for example, tell us that a losing sports team can become a winning one by adding worse players than its opponents. Or that the thirteenth of the month is more likely to be a Friday than any other day. Or that cones can roll unaided uphill. In Nonplussed!--a delightfully eclectic collection of paradoxes from many different areas of math--popular-math writer Julian Havil reveals the math that shows the truth of these and many other unbelievable ideas.
Nonplussed! pays special attention to problems from probability and statistics, areas where intuition can easily be wrong. These problems include the vagaries of tennis scoring, what can be deduced from tossing a needle, and disadvantageous games that form winning combinations. Other chapters address everything from the historically important Torricelli's Trumpet to the mind-warping implications of objects that live on high dimensions. Readers learn about the colorful history and people associated with many of these problems in addition to their mathematical proofs.
Nonplussed! will appeal to anyone with a calculus background who enjoys popular math books or puzzles.
The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures
by Malba Tahan
from W. W. Norton & Company
Here's a delightful little book that combines the joys of mathematical recreation with some fine storytelling. It follows the Arabian adventures of a man with remarkable mathematical skills, which he uses to settle conflict and give wise advice. The tales of his travels involve the solving of mathematical puzzles and sharing insights from the minds of some of history's great mathematicians. In reading it, you can almost smell the spices and feel the desert wind. You just don't find this kind of atmosphere in books about mathematics.
Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-Follow, Step-by-Step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles
by Dan Harris
from Sterling
The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems
by Martin Gardner
from W. W. Norton
Finally collected in one volume, Martin Gardner's immensely popular short puzzles—along with a few new ones from the master.
For more than twenty-five years, Martin Gardner was Scientific American's renowned provocateur of popular math. His yearly gatherings of short and inventive problems were easily his most anticipated math columns. Loyal readers would savor the wit and elegance of his explorations in physics, probability, topology, and chess, among others. Grouped by subject and arrayed from easiest to hardest, the puzzles gathered here, which complement the lengthier, more involved problems in The Colossal Book of Mathematics, have been selected by Gardner for their illuminating—and often bewildering—solutions. Filled with over 300 illustrations, this new volume even contains nine new mathematical gems that Gardner, now ninety, has been gathering for the last decade. No amateur or expert math lover should be without this indispensable volume—a capstone to Gardner's seventy-year career. 308 illustrations.
Black Belt Kakuro: 150 Puzzles (Martial Arts Kakuro)
by Conceptis Puzzles
from Sterling
Making Mathematics with Needlework: Ten Papers and Ten Projects
from A K Peters
Beautifully illustrated, and with complete patterns and the mathematics behind each project, this book successfully connects the worlds of mathematics and the fiber arts. Each chapter covers a different mathematical paper and corresponding needlework project and includes mathematical explanations, needlework instructions, educational material, and specific projects to demonstrate the principles discussed.
The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations (Math & Logic Puzzles)
by Boris A. Kordemsky
from Dover Publications
This book has been a classic in the former Soviet Union since it was first published in 1956, and it remains just as entertaining today. A master at making math fun for his high school students, Boris Kordemsky loaded this clever collection with a wide variety of math and logic related games and puzzles dealing with magic squares, tricky weights and measures, properties of numbers, mathematical tricks, and more. Number and math game fans are bound to find several new amusements here. Even many of the well-known classics from generations past take on new life with the fresh twists Kordemsky provides.
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