Mathematical Circus: More Games, Puzzles, Paradoxes, & Other Mathematical Entertainments from Scientific American; With Thoughts from Reade

The section with the Fibonacci and Lucas Binet formulas is classic. The tribonacci polynomial on page 165 is wrong, but I didn't know it was invented by Mark Feinberg, either... I'm going to try to make digraph matrices for the Knight's tours. His Kn graphs are way before most people knew they were at all important! He explains solutions in a way that teaches how to better approach such problem. I like this book!

This book can be enjoyed by a lay person. It requires no special previous knowledge. It is just plane fun as well as interesting and in some ways novel. Gardner is a good writer and will keep your interest. I have seen a number of books on math puzzles and games, this one was the best I had seen when I first saw it. (since then I read other Gardner books that surpass this in, at least, volume.) If you are curious at all you will like it.

On first thought, one would expect a circus that lacks clowns and elephants to be dull, dull, dull, but in this case that thought is wrong, wrong, wrong. The difference is of course in the quality of the ringmaster. From the first sound of "step right up folks," to when the lights fade out in the bigtop, one is led from one exciting ring to another. For the author does what all accomplished circus acts do, he makes the difficult seem easy. This material, like that of many of his books, originally appeared in the "Mathematical Games" column of Scientific American. Some of the puzzles explored here are optical illusions, eccentric chess, patterns of induction, dominoes, and matches. Along the way he also discusses artificial intelligence, the solar system, and the abacus. And all are of course in his simplistic, yet complete style that has made him a favorite for nearly forty years. If you are a fan of Martin Gardner, you have probably already read this book. If you are unfamiliar with his work, then change that state at the first opportunity. You will be glad you did. Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.