MetaFilter posts tagged with martingardner

Martin has turned thousands of children into mathematicians, and thousands of mathematicians into children.

blahblahblah — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:26:10 -0800

A polymath and a mathemagician without a math degree, Martin Gardner turns 95 tomorrow, and he is celebrating by publishing a new book of essays, which joins over 100 he has written on math, philosophy, literature, magic, and skeptical thinking. A wonderful documentary covering the overlapping circles of math, magic, and science in which he travels is available from Encyclopedia Britannica [mp4 version here]. His thousands of puzzles and mathematical diversions included building a learning machine out of matchboxes that could beat you in a simple game, science fiction puzzle tales (can you solve the first couple?), many mathematical tricks, and the first general introduction to the Game of Life. A fascinating interview with the man is available from Cambridge University Press. Sadly, few of Gardner's books or columns are freely available online, but, given his tremendous output, there are some wonderful things available. Check out the book that influenced Gardner most, the Cyclopedia of Puzzles, which is available in its entirety, as is a wonderful book in tribute to Gardner. In addition, Gardner's literary output is also impressive. He is the author of the Annotated Alice in Wonderland [link to publisher's excerpts] as well as collections of poems. He also has fascinating works on the philosophy of science.

cog_nate — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:21:50 -0800

The Mathemagician and Pied Puzzler (PDF, rough table of contents here) is a collection of puzzles created by members of the Gathering 4 Gardner Foundation, in tribute to the man himself (previously). Also freely available at the G4G site is Puzzle Craft (PDF), by Stewart Coffin. (The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections, also by Coffin, is available here.)

Fuzzy Skinner — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:50:06 -0800