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Put on your mental seatbelt and get ready for a mind-boggling excursion through mathematical history, symbols, circles, triangles, and a whole host of number puzzles. Spend hours racking your brain over this, the greatest collection of math puzzles, ever! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Book of Math Puzzles
Entertaining book, not really the Great Book of Math as its title implies. You will find Over 200 mathematical teasers grouped in thirty separated parts, called "quizzes" in this book. All the solutions to the puzzles are provided at the end of the book.

Here is am example of what you can find in this book (20-1):

"A water lily doubles itself in size each day. From the time its first leaf appeared to the time when the surface of the pound was completely covered took forty days. How long did it take for the pond to be half covered?

Difficulty level ranges from easy t medium. If you like more challenging pure mathematical teasers and puzzles, you may want to try "Challenging mathematical teasers" by J. A. H. Hunter. ... Read more

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Wit, imagination and ingenuity abound in this compilation of cunning conundrums, sure to delight puzzle fans. The collection features challenging puzzles involving topology, geometry, everyday physics, algebra, crossword puzzles, and more. Written in an entertaining and concise style, the volume includes a stimulating assortment of more than 60 baffling brain benders. 228 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Intriguing Puzzles in Math and Logic
Wit, imagination and ingenuity abound this compilation sure to delight puzzle fans. This collection features challenging puzzles involving topology, geometry, everyday physics, algebra, paper cutting and folding, crossword puzzles and more.

Here is an example of what you can find inside this book:

"A wolf is crossing a wasteland and arrives in a starving condition halfway across, and too weak to go farther, when he finds an enclosure of iron bars completely surounding some fat sheep -too fat to get through the bars, natch. The wolf is so thin hecan but he knows he will be too fat to get out if he eats enough to keep him going to cross the wasteland. The fence is too high to jump and is umbreakable. The sheherd will be coming the next week with a gun, and the wolf can not undergo another starvation period like the last. What is his best strategy?"

The book is written in an entertaining and concise language. If you like this kind of challenging mathematical teasers and puzzles, you may want to try "Challenging mathematical teasers" by J. A. H. Hunter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Love these books!
These are my favorite books by far! They are smaller so children can handle them better and the content is perfect. Our favorite part is what we call "the goal chart" in the front of the book and the stickers. They get a sticker for each page completed and for my girls when the chart is half complete they get to go to our treasure box and then again when the book is complete. They ask me to do there workbooks and I think it is a win win situation for us all ;) ... Read more

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The amazing story of one of the greatest math problems of all time and the reclusive genius who solved it

In the tradition of Fermat’s Enigma and Prime Obsession, George Szpiro brings to life the giants of mathematics who struggled to prove a theorem for a century and the mysterious man from St. Petersburg, Grigory Perelman, who fi nally accomplished the impossible. In 1904 Henri Poincaré developed the Poincaré Conjecture, an attempt to understand higher-dimensional space and possibly the shape of the universe. The problem was he couldn’t prove it. A century later it was named a Millennium Prize problem, one of the seven hardest problems we can imagine. Now this holy grail of mathematics has been found.

Accessibly interweaving history and math, Szpiro captures the passion, frustration, and excitement of the hunt, and provides a fascinating portrait of a contemporary noble-genius. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

yes, he really proved it!
This is an excellent account of the history of the Poincare Conjecture, essentially a guess by one of the greatest mathematicians of all times over a century ago about shapes in multidimensional space, the subject of the branch of mathematics called topology. The Conjecture was proved true for all numbers of dimensions except 3(which strangely enough turned out to be much more difficult to prove than, say, 10 dimensions), and the 3-dimensional problem resisted solution for a long time despite the efforts of many excellent mathematicians, including some very famous ones. Eventually it was proved by a reclusive Russian mathematician, Grigori Perelman, who was not a specialist in the area but was able to make the key additional discoveries which led to the proof. He worked alone for a long time, and when he was ready he posted his proof in 3 articles on the Internet rather than submitting it to a journal. It took specialists in the field a few years to validate the proof, and there was some chicanery as one group of mathematicians decided to claim that they deserved credit for the proof by filling in the "gaps" in Perelman's articles, but the consensus eventually emerged that the "gaps" were really just an artifact of the conciseness of his presentation, and that Perelman really did prove the Conjecture. Based on that he was awarded the "Nobel Prize" in math, the Fields medal, but he refused it and the Clay Millenium Prize with its 7-figure monetary reward based on his rigid beliefs regarding what is ethical in mathematics. He then disappeared from the scene and lives quietly in St. Petersburg with his mother. It is unclear if he is still doing math. Wouldn't it be great if in a few more years he submitted the proof of another big problem, like the Riemann Hypothesis!

Needless to say the Garbo Effect is very powerful and attracted a lot of attention to Perelman and the whole subject of the Poincare Conjecture. The author does a good job of describing the math for laypersons (although I agree with one of the reviewers that a few pictures would have been helpful). The various interesting and eccentric personalities involved in the quest for the proof are described, along with the many false turns, dead ends, and embarrassing retractions over the years. For the layperson it's very interesting to see how human foibles interact with lofty abstract reasoning to create the strange and beguiling structure of modern math. Five stars.

This book needs pictures!
As others have remarked. This is a book on topology: It should be at least partially visualizable. It is practically criminal that no illustrations have been provided.

Otherwise, the book is entertaining, at least to people who have dealt with mathematicians. As one can tell from reading about all the different responses mathematicians have had on the issues of credit, prizes, fame, etc., mathematicians are an extremely diverse group. I would guess that the variance for any psychological measure among the set of mathematicians exceeds that for any other group of scientists. Even theoretical physicists are more like each other than mathematicians are.

Good, but I'm missing something ...
The book is well detailed. It describes very well all the mathematicians having been struggling with the enormous task of proving or disproving Pointcaré's conjecture. When reading, scores of these people, maybe more than a hundred of them, are coming along. So, Szpiro didn't certainly take the easy road. But, after reading his book, I still remain with an unanswered question. That is:

If there is one topic where pictures would be really, really, useful and in fact necessary to describe and explain all these tough geometrical manipulations, it would be the topic of Pointcaré's conjecture. Well, in this book there are none. Pictures could have made this book 300 percent more interesting. But none of them. Readers have to figure out themselves how a particular shape looks like when being moved from 2 to 3 dimensions, etc. For example, just take a look on Wikipedia, to see some of these wonderful shapes. For me, geometry deals with pictures. Compared to Szpiro, I don't want to call myself a writer, but I know one thing for sure. The book I once wrote on the Riemann hypothesis would have been unreadable without scores of pictures.

In Szpiro's favor I have to say the following. I got the idea he intended to add the required pictures but for some reason they never made it to the book. Probably without him knowing that. For instance, on page 169, he writes: "Take for example, the one-dimensional figure 0 as printed on this page." Well, that page, and in fact, the entire book doesn't contain any picture whatsoever. Who made the error I haven't a clue. Could even have been someone at the publisher or at the printer.

I could only suggest to Szpiro, this is a really good and interesting book. Please, issue a new revision and add the pictures every reader really wants. If so, I would be the first buyer. You did an excellent job, but you know what I'm missing. Thanks in advance.

Poincare's Prize

This is a very well written book. The Poincare Conjecture and its recently completed proof comprise the book's topic, but much of the text is biographical and historical. The conjecture concerns the topological equivalence of particular kinds of objects within a topological space. Szpiro offers us three variants of what the conjecture says (pp. 96-97):

Poincare *
(1) "Every polyhedron all of whose Betti numbers are equal to one, and which is free of torsion, is simply connected."

Modern mathematical terminology *
(2) "A three-dimensional manifold that has the same homology groups as the three-dimensional sphere is homeomorphic to it."

Colloquial, imprecise rephrasing *
(3) "Any body that contains no holes and is not twisted can be morphed into a sphere."

For contrast and a more authoritative voice, we can look on page 714 of The Princeton Companion to Mathematics *
(4) "The Poincare conjecture is the statement that a compact simply connected smooth n-dimensional manifold must be homeomorphic to the n-sphere in S^n." [where S^n signifies S with exponent n]

Mathematicians are uncomfortable with truth-claims that are not validated through proof (what would mathematics be without proof - cf. incompleteness), so even though Poincare's conjecture appeared to be true, given the topological meaning of its terminology, it was not tautologically true; and it was devilishly difficult to prove.

If you've read the New Yorker article from August 28, 2006 by Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber entitled "Manifold Destiny" you know a controversy arose involving Grigori Perelman's proof and that Perelman has "issues" with the mathematics community. Although that is discussed in the book, it is not anywhere near the focus of the book. This is not, in other words, a book about Perelman disguised as a book about Poincare's Conjecture. Neither is it a book about topology, per se. Not only is topology under-represented, the reader must rely solely upon imagination to visualize the topological details discussed in the text. There are no line drawings to help. The bibliography, however, is helpful, and contains reference to books and articles, including titles in French and German.

Could we get an edition with pictures, please?
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RCS47D92UPLJV A review-turned-request for a second, illustrated edition of this otherwise fine book. ... Read more

Product Description
Move beyond the norm in your math classroom and challenge students to think critically with More Math Puzzles and Patterns for Kids, a new companion book to the popular Math Puzzles and Patterns for Kids. This book contains more of students’ favorite puzzles and patterns, as well as a few new ones for students to explore. All of the mathematical activities in this book were chosen for their important role in mathematics’ history.

Like its predecessor, this book explores the hottest concepts in puzzle solving—math logic puzzles—while teaching students how to use reasoning to solve some of math’s biggest conundrums: real-life patterns and puzzles such as Fibonacci’s sequence, Sudoku puzzles, tangrams, Pascal’s triangle, and magic squares. Students will sharpen their math skills while they learn the basic premises behind each challenging puzzle and then use the skills they have learned to solve multiple versions of each puzzle. ... Read more

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Challenging, provocative exercises in mental acuity test mathematical prowess, abstract reasoning, and even moral sensitivity and human concepts of beauty. Includes such mind-bogglers as "The Omega Prism," "Rubik's Tesseract," "Cosmic Rosetta Stone," "Alien Ants in Hyperspace," "Human Brains in a Jar," and "The Elk Hunter's Abduction." Detailed solutions at the end. "The most original--and challenging--puzzle book for years."--Scientific American.
Amazon.com Review
Imagine how aliens might test your intelligence. Certainly notwith the same tests you took in school. They might give you somethinglike this book--if they were extremely cool aliens. Clifford Pickoveruses the storyline of an alien intelligence test to deliver one of themost refreshing puzzle books in years. You'll be tested on logic andgeneral knowledge in most unexpected ways. Alongside the games arethought-provoking quotes pertaining to alien contact, the nature ofreality, and our own knowledge of the universe. The result is a gamebook that's a little eerie, very witty, and utterly addictive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Do you enjoy mind games?
I personally liked this book, but if you ask the rest of my family they would tell you it was great, it was annoying or ridiculous. So it really depends on whether you enjoy looking for solutions-not everything has just one right answer.

If you are the type of person who likes to look for a backdoor to a problem, then you will probably enjoy this book.

What s IQ Really?
A fun book.Some of the puzzles aren't puzzles per se, but interesting thought-provoking pieces.Some of the other puzzles aren't that much fun, but most of them are, and I've bought many copies to give to friends.

Not worth the time
I am a big fan of this author, but this book falls VERY short.He comes up with obscure patterns that you must try to solve.Here is an example of his work (that I'm making up):

What is the next number?
2, 4, 6, 8, ?

The answer is 2.Why?It's because I'm only doing even number less than 10.This is typical of his "puzzles".There is no logic to them, simply guessing.I suggest reading his other books or finding a different brain-teasing book.

Twists your brain and takes you to a higher plane
This book is a marvelous collection of puzzles and artwork meant to take the reader to a higher plane of existence and thinking.The puzzles are varied and test everything from your moral and ethical choices to higher mathematics. I have never seen a puzzle book quite like this, and I love to dip into it over and over again.Good for children and adults. A great onversation piece to bring to parties.Here is the book's table of contents:
Preface
Chapter 1. Who This Book is For

Chapter 2. Symbols and Difficulty Levels
Chapter 3. Alien Tiles
Chapter 4. Alien Sperm
Chapter 5. Alien Ellipses
Chapter 6. Alien Repeats
Chapter 7. Alien Matrix
Chapter 8. Internal Organs
Chapter 9. Alien Dissection
Chapter 10. Alien Addition
Chapter 11. Hyperdimensional Sz'kwa
Chapter 12. Alien Spiral
Chapter 13. Survival on Arcturus
Chapter 14. Alien Medallion with Lights
Chapter 15. The Omega Prism
Chapter 16. Alien Worm
Chapter 17. Alien Homoptera
Chapter 18. Star Chart
Chapter 19. Alien Spores 1
Chapter 20. Alien Spores 2
Chapter 21. Alien Spores 3
Chapter 22. Alien Spores 4
Chapter 23. Alien Spores 5
Chapter 24. Rubik's Tesseract
Chapter 25. Animal Eye
Chapter 26. Cosmic Rosetta Stone
Chapter 27. Alien Ants in Hyperspace
Chapter 28. A Severed Human Finger
Chapter 29. The Antikythera Mechanism
Chapter 30. Alien Scrambling
Chapter 31. Alien Aesthetics
Chapter 32. Alien Knowledge and Talent
Chapter 33. The Sagittarius Maneuver
Chapter 34. Siriusian Geometry
Chapter 35. Human Brains in a Jar
Chapter 36. Human Belief Structure
Chapter 37. Contact from the Pleiades
Chapter 38. The Elk Hunter's Abduction
Chapter 39. Loss of Scientific Knowledge
Chapter 40. Aliens and Sprinklers
Chapter 41. Unanswered Questions
Chapter 42. Moral and Emotional Choices of Humans
Chapter 43. Coded Transmission

Earth bound, but astronomically difficult, mind benders
Disregarding the Earth encountering a planet-busting meteor, the most traumatic event that the human race could experience is to learn of the existence of an extra-terrestrial intelligence. Humans are more sensitiveabout the perceptions of their intelligence than any other characteristic.Which would make the knowledge of a species of superior intelligence thecause of an outbreak of planet-wide paranoia.
Pickover uses this as apremise to present a series of puzzles and create a little intellectualparanoia in his readers. Most of these puzzles are hard, although he doestake pity and provide detailed solutions. Hopefully any alien in the sameposition will be as tolerant. And he also raises some very serious pointsof debate. What is the proper gift for an emissary from another planet? Ahuman body part or a priceless Van Gogh? What one message would provide themost information to a human society attempting to rebuild a civilization?Which is more important, belief in God or the existence of God?
Onceagain, Pickover demonstrates his exceptional ability to pose unusual andchallenging questions. Perhaps there is a grain of truth in the premise tothe book.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics,reprinted with permission ... Read more

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Discusses a solution to an arithmetic problem based on the rhyme about Solomon Grundy's life. ... Read more

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Math practice becomes super fun when students are motivated to solve problems just to find the answers to rib-tickling riddles. Reinforces key math skills including multiplication, division, fractions, time, money, geometry, problem solving, and more. ... Read more

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An urgent call has gone out: a series of outrageous crimes must be solved usion superior math and logic skills. You've got a real knack for these subjects, so you answer the call. Soon you're visiting the scenes of these despicable crimes with two of the best in law enforcement, Midville Police Chief Arthur Smart and his partner, 12-year-old junior detective Cal Q. Leiter. The facts are presented and the clues left behind are analyzed. Just remember, numbers are the key to unlocking the answers. How much money did Gertrude Gessler leave in her will to divide among her four nephews? What was the number of the locker where the stolen money was hidden, and how did Cal figure it out? See if you can solve the crime! ... Read more

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Brain Games for Kids: Amazing Brain Builder Puzzles is a collection of more than 100 puzzles that can provide a mental workout for children ages 8 to 12 a mental workout. The book, from the popular Brain Games series, includes a variety of puzzle types, including word puzzles, math puzzles, and picture puzzles. Just as a variety of physical exercises gives children's bodies a full workout, this variety of puzzles is designed to fully exercise their minds.

The mental challenges and puzzles in Brain Games for Kids: Amazing Brain Builder Puzzles get more difficult as children work through the book. The answers can be found on the flip side of each puzzle. None of the content appears in other Brain Games children's books.

The tablet-style book's hard back cover makes it easy to flip through and write on the pages without the need for a table or desk. Easy-tear pages allow kids to take their favorite puzzles with them wherever they go. Brain Games for Kids: Amazing Brain Builder Puzzles includes these types of mental challenges and puzzles:

• Crossword puzzles
• Decoding exercises
• Language puzzles
• Logic puzzles
• Matching games
• Math puzzles
• Mazes
• Memory puzzles
• Mutations
• Observation puzzles
• Paper fold challenges
• Picture puzzles
• Rhyme exercises
• Visual logic puzzles
• Word ladders
• Word searches

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A solid foundation of basic math skills is essential for early success in math. Children who can connect their understanding of math to the world around them will be ready for the challenges of mathematics as they advance to more complex topics. The games and puzzles in this workbook are designed to help children enjoy practicing their math skills. Best of all, they’ll have lots of fun doing it! Here’s a peek at what’s inside:
 
Hide and Seek
Counting objects in a picture, such as animals on a farm or shapes on a truck, helps bolster skills such as counting and identifying shapes.
 
Domino Dots
Putting dominoes in different formations reinforces skills such as number recognition, “less than” and “more than,” and completing patterns.
 
Picking Pairs
Drawing lines to connect objects that belong together, like a paintbrush and watercolor set, pail and shovel, or animals with their homes, sharpens sorting skills.
 
Treasure Hunt
Following directions to the real pirate treasure, and avoiding the fake ones, gives children practice with maps.
 
Plus!
Game Pieces
The workbook includes spinners, dominoes, tangram pieces, and pattern blocks for children to cut out and use with the games and puzzles.
 
 
Give your child’s confidence in math a boost with Kindergarten Math Games & Puzzles. ... Read more

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Kids love exploring new ways of solving problems, especially in fun and challenging puzzle formats. In Math and Logic Puzzles That Make Kids Think, the authors present several variations on Sudoku the most well-known type of logic puzzle in an easy to use, exciting format perfect for any math classroom. These language-independent logic puzzles provide kids with great problems to stretch how they think and reason.

Each puzzle variation utilizes some of the basic strategies of Sudoku puzzles, but each one also draws upon other areas of mathematics ordering of numbers, properties of geometric shapes, basic operations, or enriched number sense. This book provides teachers with puzzles arranged by difficulty level that can be used to support and enhance students' mathematical investigations. It also provides a new and exciting context for the development of students' deductive reasoning skills, which can lay the foundation for further mathematical exploration. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Math teacher's best friend
This book should absolutely be a part of every math teacher's collection of resources.The single-solution, language-independent puzzles inside this book will enrich any curriculum by providing a fun and challenging way to learn and think critically.These incredibly rich and masterfully created puzzles will build, develop, and maintain essential deductive reasoning skills amongst solvers of any age.This book has become part of my collection and weekly routine and I strongly encourage any teacher or lover of puzzles to pick up a copy of this book and share it with everyone the know!

An Ohio Achievement Assessment God Send!
Dr. Jeffrey Wanko has published a brilliant Mathematics/Logic resource book.The four Suduko variation puzzles that Dr. Wanko presents are solved through an easy to follow, step by step process.His well made illustrations will not only help your students solve challenging and enjoying puzzles (30 of each variety at three different skill levels--120 in all); but will also hone their deductive reasoning skills.A "must have" for the gifted and accelerated teacher, these language-independent logic puzzles will challenge your students.Please realize the appeal that these puzzles present is enough to intrigue your Inclusion students as well.In addition to the printed examples in the book, Dr. Wanko also explains how to create your own variations of the puzzles.

Dr. Wanko's resource book incorporates NCTM's Standards for Grades 6-8 in the following areas:
* build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving;
* apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems;
* monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving.
* recognize reasoning and proof as fundamental aspects of mathematics;
* make and investigate mathematical conjectures;

Dr. Wanko's instruction in language-independent logic puzzles has been the focus of his presentations at the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation's Scholar Lecture Program.

A Great Book for Math Teachers or Gifted Teachers!
The Sudoku variations that Dr. Jeffrey Wanko has compiled in his book Math and Logic Puzzles That Make Kids Think will certainly provide Math and Gifted teachers with a problem solving resource that will excite and challenge their students. The variations in these puzzles mean they will never grow stale, and by reinforcing and enriching number sense ideas and deductive reasoning skills, teachers can feel confident that Dr. Wanko's book will be a valuable supplementary resource. Dr. Wanko provides clear examples illustrating how to approach and solve each of the four Sudoku variations. He also provides suggestions as to how these puzzles could be used in class, how you can make your own Sudoku variations, and answers for each of the puzzles in the book (of which there are over 100 of them).

Wonderful Resource for Math Teachers!
This book is wonderful - especially for math teachers!Not only does Dr. Wanko explain how to solve the different types of sudoku variation puzzles, at the end of each chapter, he gives a short explanation on how to create your own puzzles of that variety.He also gives background on the sudoku puzzles and offers suggestions of how to use them in the classroom.In addition, there are 30 puzzles of each variety (a total of 120 puzzles) - 10 each of three different skill levels - plus the answers provided.What a great resource for any math teacher of students grades 6 - 12! ... Read more

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Math Ties teaches your child mathematical problem-solving strategies; connections between problems, topics, and disciplines; confidence and independence when learning daily math; and prepares them for ... Read more

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Success in math requires children to make connections between the real world and math concepts in order to solve problems. Successful problem solvers will be ready for the challenges of mathematics as they advance to more complex topics. The games and puzzles in this workbook are designed to help children enjoy practicing their math skills. Best of all, they’ll have lots of fun doing it! Here’s a peek at what’s inside:
 
Code Breaker
After solving problems with addition and subtraction, multiplication, fractions, temperature, time, or money, students use the answers to solve a fun riddle.
 
Uniform Central
The Callicoon Clippers need new hockey uniforms. Students see how many uniforms can be made by choosing from different hockey jerseys and pants.
 
Fraction Factory
Using the game board in the workbook, players see who can move the quickest through fractions of muffins to get to the box at the end.
 
Incredible Illusions
Students fill in blanks in a tessellation, or a repeating pattern of shapes, to discover the illusion.
 
Plus!
Game Pieces
The workbook includes spinners, pattern blocks, tangram pieces, and beans for students to cut out and use with the games and puzzles.
 
 
Give your child’s confidence in math a boost with 3rd Grade Math Games & Puzzles.
  ... Read more