Mathematical puzzle tales. With a foreword by Isaac Asimov (Q2715711)

Mathematical Puzzle Tales is the second edition of a collection of thirty-six mathematical puzzles dressed as science fiction stories, all of which were published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEAsimov aptly summarizes the genre of the book in his foreword to the first edition of the book: ``The puzzles that follow are woven into short fiction stories. They add amusement but are not the essence of the book. The science fiction is important, though, because it demonstrates that however times, customs and technologies alter, the essence of mathematical relationships is, was, and will be the same. It is probably the only truly rigid and relentlessly constant factor on an otherwise ever-changing universe.'' NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEAs is often the case with his books, Martin Gardner generates delightful trains of thought. A solution to a riddle appears in ``First Answers,'' where it generates new questions, which in turn are solved in ``Second Answers,'' where they give birth to a new generation of questions answered in the ``Third Answers.'' In this new edition Martin added a three-page postscript that summarizes new information related to some of the riddles. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe stories translate into problems in a great variety of subjects, such as numbers, combinatorics, geometry, topology, physics, etc. Best tools for success are common sense and open mind. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe book is well written. Every curious person would enjoy reading these essays and pondering on problems they raise, for whatever interests Gardner, he makes interesting for everyone! Thus, the book would be a worthy educational entertainment for the broadest audience of those who enjoy engaging in gymnastics of brain, which keeps the latter flexible. Occasional adult humor, however, may stop this reviewer from recommending it to young, middle school readers, who otherwise would have greatly benefited from it. (MAA's web page reviewer Professor Antonella Cupillari does not mind this unnecessary restricting of the book's audience. She seems delighted that ``in its second iteration, this problem [i.e., The Doctors' Dilemma] suggests that mathematicians might occasionally think about sex!'') NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThis review would be incomplete without noteworthy words from Isaac Asimov foreword on mathematics in general and recreational mathematics in particular: NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE``It might be supposed that one should sneer a bit at anything called ``recreational mathematics'' or ``mathematical games.'' Are such things not just ``recreations''? Just ``games''? They can't be of any importance, one might think. They're just a way of fooling around. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEWho really cares how many ways you can pair up people at a bridge table, or how many colors are needed to fill up a map under certain conditions, or how many routes a knight can take about a chessboard, or what the shortest path from one city to another might be if you follow a particular type of route? But mathematicians do care and always have. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEIt might be argued, in fact, that all mathematics begins as ``Games'' in the sense that the first glimmering of any part of seems to have no use.