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David Singmaster believes in the presentation and teaching of mathematics as recreation. When the Rubik's Cube took off in 1978, based on thinly disguised mathematics, he became seriously interested in mathematical puzzles which would provide mental stimulation for students and professional mathematicians. He has not only published the standard mathematical solution for the Rubik's cube still in use today, but he has also become the de facto scribe and noted chronicler of the recreational mathematics puzzles themselves.
Dr Singmaster is also an ongoing lecturer of recreational mathematics around the globe, a noted mechanical puzzle collector, owner of thousands of books related to recreational mathematical puzzles and the "go to" source for the history of individual mathematical puzzles.
This set of two books provides readers with an adventure into previously unknown origins of ancient puzzles, which could be traced back to their Medieval, Chinese, Arabic and Indian sources. The puzzles are fully described, many with illustrations, adding interest to their history and relevance to contemporary mathematical concepts. These are musings of a respected historian of recreational mathematics.
Contents:- Volume 1:
- What is Recreational Mathematics?
- Ancient Puzzles:
- Puzzles from The Greek Anthology
- Āryabhaṭa and Other Early Indian Mathematicians
- Alcuin and his Propositiones
- The Problems of Abbot Albert
- Pacioli: The First Book of Mathematical Puzzles
- Pacioli's Magic and Card Tricks
- Some Early Topological Puzzles
- Interlude: Finding a Sardinian Maze
- New Ideas about Old Puzzles:
- A Legacy of Camels
- Heronian Triangles
- The Ass and Mule Problem
- How to Count Your Chickens
- The Monkey and the Coconuts
- Two River Crossing Problems
- Sharing Barrels
- Vanishing Area Paradoxes
- Appendix A: Ancient and Important Sources
- Volume 2:
- Why Recreational Mathematics?
- On Round Pegs in Square Holes and Vice Versa
- Hunting for Bears
- Sum = Product Sequences
- A Cubical Path Puzzle
- Recurring Binomial Coefficients
- Sums of Squares and Pyramidal Numbers
- The Bridges of Königsberg
- Triangles with Doubled Angles
- Quasicrystals and the University
- The Wobbler
- Calculating for Fun
- Three Rabbits or Twelve Horses