New MAA Book: Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma Cube

Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma Cube: Martin Gardner's Mathematical Diversions
Martin Gardner
234 pp., paperbound, 2008. Series: The New Martin Gardner Mathematical Library (No. 2)
ISBN: 978-0-521-73524-7
 
Martin Gardner presents a plethora of surprises and delights to readers of Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma Cube. The second volume in The New Martin Gardner Mathematical Library series, the book's chapters are drawn from Gardner's popular Scientific American columns. In this volume, Gardner introduces the Generalized Ham Sandwich Theorem, origami, digital roots, magic squares, the mathematics of cooling coffee, the induction game of Eleusis, Dudeney puzzles, the maze at Hampton Court Palace, and many other mathematical puzzles and principles.

In consultation with experts, Martin Gardner has updated all the chapters and added new game variations, mathematical proofs, and other developments and discoveries to challenge and fascinate a new generation of readers.

Contents:
1. The Five Platonic Solids; 2. Tetraflexagons; 3. Henry Dudeney: England's Greatest Puzzlist; 4. Digital Roots; 5. Nine Problems; 6. The Soma Cube; 7. Recreational Topology; 8. Phi: The Golden Ratio; 9. The Monkey and the Coconuts; 10. Mazes; 11. Recreational Logic; 12. Magic Squares; 13. James Hugh Riley Shows, Inc.; 14. Nine More Problems; 15. Eleusis: The Induction Game; 16. Origami; 17. Squaring the Square; 18. Mechanical Puzzles; 19. Probability and Ambiguity; 20. The Mysterious Dr. Matrix.

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

"An orgy of right-brain tomfoolery that could be approached for superficial fun or deep insight, or both at the same time."—David Brooks, The Telegraph

About The New Martin Gardner Mathematical Library:
Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" columns in Scientific American linked the world of professional mathematicians with that of recreational mathematics. Gardner's columns broke stories about knot theory, fractals, and Penrose tilings, among may other mathematical and scientific subjects. This series brings all his original books together for the first time, in revised and expanded editions for the twenty-first century.

Editorial Board: Donald J. Albers, Gerald L. Alexanderson, John H. Conway, Richard K. Guy, Harold R. Jacobs, Donald E. Knuth, and Peter L. Renz.

Order Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma Cube from the MAA Bookstore.
List: $14.99