Sphere Packing, Lewis Carroll, and Reversi
Martin Gardner's New Mathematical Diversions

The latest on packing spheres, Reversi, braids, polyominoes, board games, digits of pi, and the puzzles of Lewis Carroll.

Martin Gardner (Author)

9780521747011, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 6 July 2009

296 pages, 130 b/w illus.
21.8 x 14 x 1.7 cm, 0.35 kg

'Gardner's monthly romp through recreational math and logic ran in Scientific American for 25 years, from the Sputnik splash to the Reagan reign, and nobody has been able to match it since. 'Mathematical Games' was an orgy of right-brain tomfoolery that could be approached for superficial fun or deep insight, or both at the same time … I can't think of a better present for a clever 12-year old, bored undergraduate, restless retiree, or stay-at-home parent fearing intellectual stagnation.' David Brooks, The Telegraph

Packing spheres, Reversi, braids, polyominoes, board games, and the puzzles of Lewis Carroll. These and other mathematical diversions return to readers with updates to all the chapters, including new game variations, mathematical proofs, and other developments and discoveries. Read about Knuth's Word Ladders program and the latest developments in the digits of pi. Once again these timeless puzzles will charm readers while demonstrating principles of logic, probability, geometry, and other fields of mathematics.

1. The binary system
2. Group theory and braids
3. Eight problems
4. The games and puzzles of Lewis Carroll
5. Paper cutting
6. Board games
7. Sphere packing
8. The transcendental number Pi
9. Victor Eigen, mathemagician
10. The four-color map theorem
11. Mr. Apollinax visits New York
12. Nine problems
13. Polyominoes and fault-free rectangles
14. Euler's spoilers: the discovery of an Order-10 Graeco-Latin square
15. The ellipse
16. The 24 color squares and the 30 color cubes
17. H. S. M. Coxeter
18. Bridg-it and other games
19. Nine more problems
20. The calculus of finite differences.

Subject Areas: Sudoku & number puzzles [WDKN], Mathematics [PB]