Gardner's Workout

" "[Gardner's writings]are the best explanations of mathematics you can find and it has already been proven that they light a fire of enthusiasm for mathematics." -Charles Ashbacher, Journal of Recreational Mathematics , November 2002 "The effectiveness of this book derives in large part from the passion with which Gardner shares his mathematical enthusiasm and on the breadth of erudition of his discussions. This is another winner!" -Edward J. Barbeau, Crux Mathematicorum , October 2001 "This collection differs from his previous collections in that the articles cover a much wider range than before." -David Singmaster, LMS , January 2003 "... even well-known puzzles retain their power, as was made clear again and again last month at the seventh "Gathering for Gardner." These conferences of mathematicians, puzzlers, game-players and magicians at the Ritz-Carlton here began as personal tributes to Martin Gardner, Scientific American's legendary Mathematical Games columnist, and now take place without the master's presence (he is 91). During four days of talks and tricks, the oldest puzzles mixed freely with the newest." -Edward Rothstein, The New York Times , April 2006 "There are many choice plums among this [collection], some containing a pointer to deeper ideas, some unsolved, and some plain fun, but all entertaining ... I shall enjoy dipping into the book from time to time ..." -The Mathematical Gazette , March 2002 "This is a remarkable book... It will surely produce a paradise for anyone who wants to enjoy teh pleasure of the creative work in his brain." -EMS Newsletter , March 2003"

• Part I 1. The Opaque Cube 2. The Square Root of 2 = 1.414 213 562 373 O95 3. Flip, the Psychic Robot 4. The Propositional Calculus with Directed Graphs 5. Mathematics and Wordplay 6. Steiner Trees on a Checkerboard 7. Tiling the Bent Tromino 8. Covering a Cube with Congruent Polygons 9. Magic Tricks on a Computer 10. Variations on the 12345679 Trick 11. More Calculator Whimsies 12. Kasparov’s Defeat by Deep Blue 13. Computers Near the Threshold? 14. Cornering the King 15. Toroidal Currency 16. Six Challenging Dissection Tasks 17. Lewis Carroll’s Pillow-Problems 18. Lewis Carroll’s Word Ladders 19. TheAnton1x1x2 20. Three-Point Tiling 21. Lucky Numbers and 2187 22. 3 x 3 Magic Squares 23. Some New Discoveries about 3 x 3 Magic Squares 24. Primes in Arithmetic Progression 25. Prime Magic Squares 26. The Dominono Game 27. The Growth OF Recreational Mathematics 28. Maximum Inscribed Squares, Rectangles, and Triangles 29. Serial lsogons 0F 90 Degrees 30. Around the Solar System 31. Ten Amazing Mathematical Tricks 32. Modeling Mathematics with Playing Cards 33. The Asymmetric Propeller Theorem 34. Chess Queens and Maximum Unattacked Cells Part II 35. Lion Hunting 36. Two Books on infinity 37. The Universe and the Teacup 38. A New Result on PerFec’c Magic Squares 39. The Number Devil 40. Probability1 41. Fuzzy New New Math