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This lavishly illustrated 736-page reference provides a lifetime of entertainment! It contains complete rules, playing tips, and instructive move-by-move examples of 65 fun and diverse games. They range from Senat, a pastime enjoyed by King Tut, to Hex, invented by a 20th-century mathematician; from strategy games like Siege of Paris to dice games like Chuck-a-Luck to chase games like Pachisi; from Asian Shogi to African Wari; and from traditional Chess and Go to modern creations like Mastermind and Othello. Colorful illustrations show old-time and modern players, game boards, and equipment alongside fascinating anecdotes and curious facts about games throughout history. For every player, this one’s a sure winner!
This book presents instructions and diagrams for paper airplanes divided into categories of fantasy flyers, genuine reproductions, competition craft, and experimental models.
It's possible to train your brain, give your memory a quick pick-me-up, and alleviate the effects of aging. The mind deteriorates when it's not kept active, but this attractively illustrated workout--complete with exercises, tests, and tips--helps keep those mental muscles sharp. Each game focuses on a particular skill: language, spatial recognition, concentration, logic, structure, associative thinking, general knowledge, and more. Put seven mixed-up letters in the right order to create the correct word. Pick out the pair of planes that do not fit into a square. Try to remember the pattern in which eight roses are laid out--then turn the page and find the ninth rose that has been added. Not only are these drills memory-boosting, they're fun!
Shows a variety of antique and modern puzzles, including puzzle locks and rings, and folding, impossible object, vanish, dexterity, sequential movement, disentanglement, interlocking, and take-apart puzzles
Can you cut an octagon into 5 pieces and rearrange them into a square? How about turning a star into a pentagon? These are just two of the infinite challenges of geometric dissections, the mathematical art of cutting figures into pieces that can be rearranged to form other figures, using as few pieces as possible. This book shows you many ingenious ways to solve these problems and the beautiful constructions you can create. The author explains solution methods carefully, assuming only a basic knowledge of high school geometry, then poses puzzles for you to solve. He also introduces the people who have worked on these problems, travelling from the palace school of tenth-century Baghdad to the mathematical puzzle columns in turn-of-the-century newspapers. This beautifully illustrated book will provide hours of enjoyment for any mathematical puzzle enthusiast.
Shows how to make a variety of puzzles out of wood, string, and wire, and includes solutions
The common wooden matchstick, with its brightly colored tip and sturdy box, has inspired tricks and puzzles ever since it was invented. Here’s a collection of the most baffling matchstick puzzles of all time, from the six riddles of the nine squares to the astonishing effect of the matchstick telegraph. Can you build a bridge with just two matches? Can you balance matchstick equations? Can you calculate how many matches you would need to cover the distance from the earth to the moon? With a rating of easy, medium, or difficult for each puzzle and illustrations showing colorful matchbox covers from around the world, this fascinating potpourri of brain-benders will provide hours of amusement for young and old alike.
Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games columns in Scientific American inspired and entertained several generations of mathematicians and scientists. Gardner in his crystal-clear prose illuminated corners of mathematics, especially recreational mathematics, that most people had no idea existed. His playful spirit and inquisitive nature invite the reader into an exploration of beautiful mathematical ideas along with him. These columns were both a revelation and a gift when he wrote them; no one--before Gardner--had written about mathematics like this. They continue to be a marvel. This volume was originally published in 1989 and contains columns from published 1976-1978. This 1997 MAA edition contains three new columns written specifically for this volume including the resurrection of the lamented Dr. Matrix.
An Anthropology of Puzzles argues that the human brain is a "puzzling organ" which allows humans to literally solve their own problems of existence through puzzle format. Noting the presence of puzzles everywhere in everyday life, Marcel Danesi looks at puzzles in society since the dawn of history, showing how their presence has guided large sections of human history, from discoveries in mathematics to disquisitions in philosophy. Danesi examines the cognitive processes that are involved in puzzle making and solving, and connects them to the actual physical manifestations of classic puzzles. Building on a concept of puzzles as based on Jungian archetypes, such as the river crossing image, the path metaphor, and the journey, Danesi suggests this could be one way to understand the public fascination with puzzles. As well as drawing on underlying mental archetypes, the act of solving puzzles also provides an outlet to move beyond biological evolution, and Danesi shows that puzzles could be the product of the same basic neural mechanism that produces language and culture. Finally, Danesi explores how understanding puzzles can be a new way of understanding our human culture.