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.