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posted by martyb on Sunday November 01 2015, @07:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the things-are-shaping-up dept.

There are 101 non-fiction, and several fiction, books credited to popular science and mathematics writer Martin Gardner (1914-2010), who would have turned 101 on October 21. Among the myriad math problems that Martin presented in his influential "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American over a 25-year period, quite a few of them spawned more questions than answers, which is actually a good thing.

The influence of the "Mathematical Games" brand and recognition of the importance of recreational mathematics continues today, and Martin's readers now span several generations. His hard core fans continue to host invitation-only "Gatherings for Gardner" in Atlanta every two years and anyone (anywhere) can attend or host Celebrations of Mind in and around each October. Most importantly, people keep pushing the envelope by producing new solutions of substance to his conundrums as well as new twists on old plots.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @03:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @03:08AM (#257347)

    Before there was a nerd corner of the web, there was Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American, which were collected into a book every few years. So that everyone of a certain turn of mind could learn about and discuss Newcombe's Paradox, the game of Nim (and who should win), the five Platonic solids, Sam Loyd's puzzles, the Fibonacci series and its ubiquity in nature, etc.

    Gardner had a character named "Dr. Matrix" (obviously an alter ego for the author), who took over his column from time to time. One time, the author discovered Dr. Matrix was detained in Sing Sing, because of a trick he had played of "rearranging" twenty dollar bills into 19 vertical slices each; the originals had 20 slices, so it was an attempt at a quick 5 percent ROI. Apparently counterfeiting could be a bit more primitive back in the day, but the fact that the serial numbers didn't match did not escape the notice of authorities. Anyway, a few months after Gardner's column ran, stories began appearing in the mainstream press about real people getting arrested for copying Dr. Matrix's technique.