Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
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Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#2i've made that dragon cutout illusion, it is indescribably effective. make sure you look at it with one eye and maybe in lower lighting where the seams arent as visible.
here are all the different color cutouts (there's a cat and dog one too): http://goo.gl/T05Oct
Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#3Lovely article with some interesting puzzles near the bottom (and top). When I was young, Martin Gardner's puzzle books, along with Raymond Smullyan's 'What Is The Name Of This Book?'[1], introduced me to logic and to the fact that mathematics could be fun - something that was very influential in going on to study maths and computer science. I thoroughly recommend checking them out if you haven't already.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/What-Name-This-Book-Recreational/dp/04...
Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#4If anyone is looking for a starting point to Gardner's vast works, I highly recommend "Aha! Insight."
Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#5There is an interesting kind of a puzzle / challenge where a set of objects is presented that follows some certain rule. The rule can be arbitrary -- these objects are all circles, these objects are in the top portion of the box, these objects are pictures of cats, etc. The objective is to identify the rule in the set given, that does not fit any of the objects in another set (also given) . I can't recall or be able to find the name of this kind of puzzle, though!
Edit: They are called Bongard problems. http://www.foundalis.com/res/diss_research.html
Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#6Lovely article with some interesting puzzles near the bottom (and top). When I was young, Martin Gardner's puzzle books, along with Raymond Smullyan's 'What Is The Name Of This Book?'[1], introduced me to logic and to the fact that mathematics could be fun - something that was very influential in going on to study maths and computer science. I thoroughly recommend checking them out if you haven't already. [1] http://…
for me it was gardner, and yakov perelman's "mathematics can be fun". i still mourn that the latter went out of print and has all but vanished.
Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#7Lovely article with some interesting puzzles near the bottom (and top). When I was young, Martin Gardner's puzzle books, along with Raymond Smullyan's 'What Is The Name Of This Book?'[1], introduced me to logic and to the fact that mathematics could be fun - something that was very influential in going on to study maths and computer science. I thoroughly recommend checking them out if you haven't already. [1] http://…
for me it was gardner, and yakov perelman's "mathematics can be fun". i still mourn that the latter went out of print and has all but vanished.
Archive.org to the rescue!
https://archive.org/details/MathematicsCanBeFun-1
(Offtopic: honestly, I love that website and the work they do. My personal favourite find there is a full copy of "On The Spiritual In Art" by Kandinsky. Reading his thoughts behind his artworks is so much more valuable in bringing his artworks to life than listening to rambling art critics.)
Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
for me it was gardner, and yakov perelman's "mathematics can be fun". i still mourn that the latter went out of print and has all but vanished.
Archive.org to the rescue! https://archive.org/details/MathematicsCanBeFun-1 (Offtopic: honestly, I love that website and the work they do. My personal favourite find there is a full copy of "On The Spiritual In Art" by Kandinsky. Reading his thoughts behind his artworks is so much more valuable in bringing his artworks to life than listening to rambling art critics.)
wow, i've been looking on and off for years hoping someone had finally put that online. thanks for the pointer!!
Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#9If anyone is looking for a starting point to Gardner's vast works, I highly recommend "Aha! Insight."
"mathematical magic show" is another very good one; it's somewhat thicker than most of his collections, and spans a nicely eclectic set of advanced topics.
Re: Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire
#10This article made me discover thinkfun.com (for the dragon stuff) and, HOLY WOW, that site is fricking awesome when you're brainstorming for kids' christmas. Don't miss that.