Mathematical Puzzles - Paperback

by Peter Winkler (Author)

Research in mathematics is much more than solving puzzles, but most people will agree that solving puzzles is not just fun: it helps focus the mind and increases one's armory of techniques for doing mathematics. Mathematical Puzzles makes this connection explicit by isolating important mathematical methods, then using them to solve puzzles and prove a theorem.

Features

• A collection of the world's best mathematical puzzles
• Each chapter features a technique for solving mathematical puzzles, examples, and finally a genuine theorem of mathematics that features that technique in its proof
• Puzzles that are entertaining, mystifying, paradoxical, and satisfying; they are not just exercises or contest problems.

Author Biography

Peter Winkler is the William Morrill Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth College, and for 2019 - 2020, the Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics at the National Museum of Mathematics. He is the author of 160 research papers, a dozen patents, two previous puzzle books, a book on cryptographic techniques in the game of bridge, and a portfolio of compositions for ragtime piano.