New: Knots and Borromean Rings, Rep-Tiles, and Eight Queens

Knots and Borromean Rings, Rep-Tiles, and Eight Queens

Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner's fifteen volumes about Mathematical Games are The Canon – timeless classics that are always worth reading and rereading. —Don Knuth

I recommend you approach this book on a Sunday afternoon with paper and pen a few biscuits for brain-power and a good hour to spare for puzzling. It is worth it. —Charlotte Mulcare, +plus Magazine

The hangman’s paradox, cat’s cradle, gambling, peg solitaire, pi and e—all these and more are back in Martin Gardner’s inimitable style, with updates on new developments and discoveries. Read about how knots and molecules are related; take a trip into the fourth dimension; try out new dissections of stars, crosses, and polygons; and challenge yourself with new twists on classic games.

This volume includes updates by Martin Gardner, Peter Renz, Greg Frederickson, and Erica Flapan. New illustrations have been included and replace some of the older illustrations. The references have been updated.

Purchase your copy today for only $16.99.

Darren Glass reviews Martin Gardner in the Twenty-First Century

Darren Glass reviews Martin Gardner in the Twenty-First Century edited by Michael Henle and Brian Hopkins as an MAA review. Martin Gardner is probably as close as any author covered by MAA Reviews could come to needing no introduction. So rather than spend my own energy trying to write one, let me quote from a few other reviews of his works that have been written on this site over the years:      “Martin Gardner is a national treasure, someone whose           contribution to mathematics has been immense.”      “Ask almost any mathematician who grew up during the       1960s or 1970s, and they’ll tell you about the enormous       influence Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Games column had on them.” “[Gardner] has enlightened, educated and delighted readers around the world during many decades as a prolific contributor to many publications” “It is hard to exaggerate the importance and influence of these books. You must have them! Buy one for yourself, and buy many to give away.” To read the whole review, click here. To purchase, visit the MAA Store or the MAA eBooks Store. Darren Glass is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Gettysburg College, and one of the best mathematical experiences he has had was speaking at a Gathering For Gardner conference a few years ago. He would be happy to ramble about how great it was or any number of other topics, and can be reached at dglass@gettysburg.edu.

James Tanton Presents MAA Lecture and Martin Gardner Celebration of Mind Event

James Tanton will present the MAA Carriage House Lecture and Martin Gardner Celebration of Mind Event "Weird Ways to Work with Pi” on Wednesday, December 5, 2012, at 6:30 p.m. (More information). 

Here are some related MAA Books and eBooks:

Mathematics Galore! by James Tanton

Solve This by James Tanton

Aha! Insight & Gotcha by Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games

Coming Soon! Martin Gardner in the Twenty-First Century

Martin Gardner enormously expanded the field of recreational mathematics with the Mathematical Games columns he wrote for Scientific American for over 25 years and the more than 70 books he published. He also had a long relationship with the Mathematical Association of America, publishing articles in the MAA journals right up to his death in 2010. This book collects articles Gardner wrote for the MAA in the twenty-first century, together with other articles the MAA published from 1999 to 2012 that spring from and comment on his work.

Martin Gardner's interests spanned geometry, number theory, graph theory, and probability, always communicated with engaging exposition often including games and puzzles. Eight works by Gardner himself, published between 1999 and 2010, are collected here and represent the breadth of his work, including his short fiction and lifelong interest in debunking pseudo-science. The remaining 33 chapters were written in response to Gardner's work and include several articles addressing open questions he posed. They come from The American Mathematical Monthly, Mathematics Magazine, The College Mathematics Journal, and Math Horizons and demonstrate how Gardner's influence continues beyond his columns for Scientific American.

Although he took no mathematics in college, Martin Gardner inspired many mathematicians, professional and amateur, and his work was informed by frequent correspondence with other mathematics aficionados, both famous and unknown. He was even the basis for a character in a popular novel; his review of that work in included here. This book is a tribute to the deep and lasting impact of this prolific and brilliant writer. It is for anyone who, like Martin Gardner, loves mathematics.

Martin Gardner in the Twenty-First Century is edited by Michael Henle and Brian Hopkins. Look for this book coming soon to the MAA Store.

Celebrating Martin Gardner

Longtime acclaimed mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner was born on October 21. Every October, on and around his birthday, Celebrations of Mind are held all over the globe. These events are aimed at curious people of all ages, and intended to provide an opportunity to celebrate the things he made so many people think about for many decades: recreational math, puzzles, optical illusions, rationality, skepticism, and much more. 

The MAA will be hosting a Gardner event on December 5, 2012. James Tanton will present "Weird Ways to Work with Pi”, a talk that will explore some weird and wonderful ways to play with pi for shapes that might or might not be circles.


Gardner was perhaps best known as the author of the "Mathematical Games" column for Scientific American, which ran from 1956 to 1981. Throughout his career he wrote more than 70 books and collections of essays on topics ranging from Lewis Carroll and magic tricks to philosophy, religion, and scientific skepticism. Several of his most popular writings are available in the MAA Store. 

	Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" Gardner's Scientific American column "Mathematical Games" on a single, searchable source
	aha! Gotcha / aha! Insight 144 wonderful puzzles from the reigning king of recreational mathematics.
	Mathematical Magic Show Nineteen tantalizing conundrums.
	Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers Included here are chapters on Conway's surreal numbers, Mandelbrot's fractals, and Smullyan's logic puzzles.
	Hexaflexagons, Probability Paradoxes, and the Tower of Hanoi The inaugural volume in Martin Gardner's New Mathematical Library. These mathematical recreations delight and perplex while demonstrating principles of logic, probability, geometry, and other fields of mathematics.
	Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma Cube The second volume in Gardner's New Mathematical Library, updated chapters, including new game variations, mathematical proofs, and other developments and discoveries, to challenge and fascinate a new generation of readers.
	Sphere Packing, Lewis Carroll, and Reversi Packing spheres, Reversi, braids, polyominoes, board games, and the puzzles of Lewis Carroll.
	Mathematical Puzzle Tales The challenging problems presented here are based on geometry, logarithms, topology, probability, weird number sequences, logic and virtually every other aspect of mathematics as well as wordplay.