Book Description
Set of 48 challenging puzzles to develop copying, matching, problem-solving and logical-thinking skills. Includes two sets of plastic Tangrams, seven pieces per set, and 24 - 8 1/2" x 11" puzzle cards, printed on both sides.Everything you need is in the box! ... Read more

Product Description
This book discusses how to designgoodgeometric puzzles: two-dimensional dissection puzzles, polyhedral dissections, and burrs. It outlines major categories of geometric puzzles and provides examples, sometimes going into the history and philosophy of those examples.The author presents challenges and thoughtful questions, as well as practical design and woodworking tips to encourage the reader to build his own puzzles and experiment with his own designs. Aesthetics, phychology, and mathematical considerations all factor into the definition of the quality of a puzzle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Must for all puzzle interested people
as a long time collector and producer of wooden puzzles is this new puzzlebook an absolute Must for every puzzle interested people; although I have allCoffin`s former editions this new review about his designs is usefull for collectors as well as for producers of puzzles;

Classic book not to be missed
This book covers a large number of puzzle designs, most due to the author.Most of these puzzles have become sought-after classics.The puzzles are mostly 3D interlocking burrs, but there also included are 2D designs, sliding block puzzles, and non-interlocking 3D puzzles.The author also talks about how to build puzzles, characteristics of wood, etc.

I am not a puzzle builder, but enjoyed the book immesely.The author is an excellent writer and his musings about symmetry and general design considerations I found fascinating.Solutions in general are lacking and much is left to the ingenuity of the reader to keep the mystery of solving these puzzles fresh.

Although you can download a pdf copy of this book for free, I enjoy the physical copy for perusal.Highly recommended.

A "must-have" for intermediate to advanced woodworkers seeking to create truly brain-teasing gifts.
Written by veteran woodworker and expert wood puzzle designer Stewart Coffin, Geometric Puzzle Design is a one-of-a-kind guide to creating intriguing, three-dimensional wooden puzzles. Special techniques for creating oddly shaped small puzzle pieces accurately and safely, recommendations for drafting one's own original designs, mathematical concepts that can be applied as engineering tools, and much more fill this original craftsman's manual. A "must-have" for intermediate to advanced woodworkers seeking to create truly brain-teasing gifts.

MUST HAVE for puzzle builders
Coffin does it again, with the quintessential wooden puzzle builder's guide.If you're fortunate enough to have previous works by Stewart, keep in mind that this is an updated version, so a lot will be repetitive.Then again, if you have the previous version, you're probably a Puzzle Junkie, in which case the updates alone are probably worth it.
If I were going to be stuck on a desert island...and there were trees, and I had a knife and a sharpening stone...then this would be the One Book I'd want. ... Read more

Product Description
"aha! Gotcha"and "aha! Insight" are here combined as a single volume. The aha! books, as they are referred to by fans of the author Martin Gardner, contain 144 wonderful puzzles from the reigning king of recreational mathematics. In this combined volume, you will find puzzles ranging over geometry, logic, probability, statistics, number,time, combinatorics, and word play. Gardner calls these puzzles aha! problems. He explains that aha! problems "seem difficult, and indeed are difficult if you go about trying to solve them in traditional ways. But if you can free your mind from standard problem solving techniques, you may be receptive to an aha! reaction that leads immediately to a solution. Don't be discouraged if, at first, you have difficulty with these problems. Try your best to solve each one before you read the answer. After a while you will begin to catch the spirit of offbeat , nonlinear thinking, and you may be surprised to find your aha! ability improving."Studies show that persons who possess a high aha! ability are all intelligent to a moderate level, but beyond that level there seems to be no correlation between high intelligence and aha! thinking. So dig into some of the puzzles in this book, and prepare yourself for an aha! experience. ... Read more

Book Description
Introducing MindGames, a series of conceptual puzzle and activity books for kids eight and up-and we mean up-who enjoy the challenge of solving problems and the pleasure of figuring out new ways of seeing things. Created by Ivan Moscovich, a world-renowned inventor of games, puzzles, and toys, each book comes with a three-dimensional, interactive puzzle on the cover, and dozens of full-color illustrated problems on the same theme inside.

Beginning with Elevation on the cover-an ingenious progressive game involving moving the disks level by level to the top, Number Games covers geometry, symmetry, fractal points, and lines. There are magic squares, magic hexagons, magic triangles. Plus Pixel Craft. Think of a Number. The Spider Web Puzzle and Cut the Cake.

The most important skills needed to solve these puzzles are curiosity and an open mind. (Solutions and explanations are provided, of course!)

Also in the MindGames series: Probability Games, Network Games, Pattern Games. ... Read more

Book Description
Can you cut an octagon into five pieces and rearrange them into a square?How about turning a star into a pentagon? These are just two of the infinite challenges of geometric dissections, the mathematical art of cutting figures into pieces that can be rearranged to form other figures, using as few pieces as possible. Through the ages, geometric dissections have fascinated puzzle fans and great mathematicians alike. Here are dissections known to Plato and exciting new discoveries alike. Greg Frederickson explains solution methods carefully, assuming only a basic knowledge of high school geometry. This beautifully illustrated book provides hours of enjoyment for every mathematical puzzle enthusiast. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Slicing and splicing for enjoyment
Dissections are one area of mathematics where theory usually plays a secondary role to intuition.While the discovery of a solution may take an enormous amount of trial and effort, understanding it is generally a simpleverification. For these reasons, dissections can aptly be described as anarea of popular mathematics. The puzzles of Sam Loyd were extremelypopular, with one even described as having been a national craze in theUnited States, and some of his most diabolical were dissections. HisEnglish counterpart and rival was Henry Dudeney, whose collected works ofpuzzles also contains many dissections.
As befits the development ofabstract geometry centuries ago, the art of dissection goes all the wayback to the age of Plato. Starting with a geometric shape and cutting itinto pieces that can be rearranged to form another shape is something thatclearly is more of a hobby than a career, although it is possible that itmay have some applications in space filling.
Art and hobbies aside,this is a fun book to explore. Since the subject matter is the slicing andsplicing of geometric figures, most of the results are presented asdiagrams, making the solutions easy to understand. One thought constantlyleapt to mind when I was examining some of the diagrams,"How did theythink of doing that?" Obvious only after the fact, many dissections arehardly something that would easily leap to mind.Additional puzzles areinterspersed throughout the text and solutions to all are included at theend of the book.
The public loves puzzles, as the popularity of somegame shows and regular puzzle columns in newspapers and magazinesdemonstrates. In this book, you will find some of the most challenging ofdissection type puzzles, sure to keep you interested from the opening sliceto the final splice.

Published in Journal of RecreationalMathematics, reprinted with permission. ... Read more

Product Description
A dissection involves cutting a polygon into pieces in such a way that those pieces form another polygon; for a hinged dissection, the pieces must be attached by hinges. A piano hinge isa long narrow hinge with a pin running the entire length of its joint.So, unlike regular hinged dissections, which swing or twist (around single point of hinge), piano-hinged dissections fold along an edge. This book discusses the history, methods, and variations of these dissections and is rich with illustrations that clearly depict the cuts of the dissections and three-dimensional simulations of the dissections in the process of being folded.A CD that includes video recordings of select dissections being transformed accompanies the book. ... Read more

Book Description
In this fantastically fun foam puzzle book, children will learn torecognize shapes and shape words and name everyday objects. Then they canthen lift out the chunky foam puzzle pieces to reveal more familiarobjects and words. The delightful photographs reinforce essential pre-mathand pre-reading skills. • Learn and recognize shapes and shape words.• Associate shapes with common objects.• Lift the chunky foam puzzle pieces to reveal more objects and words. ... Read more

Book Description
If you enjoy beautiful geometry and relish the challenge and excitement of something new, the mathematical art of hinged dissections is for you. Using this book, you can explore ways to create hinged collections of pieces that swing together to form a figure.Swing them another way and then, like magic, they form another figure! The profuse illustrations and lively text will show you how to find a wealth of hinged dissections for all kinds of polygons, stars and crosses, curved and even three-dimensional figures. The author includes careful explanation of ingenious new techniques, as well as puzzles and solutions for readers of all mathematical levels. These novel and original dissections will be a gold mine for math puzzle enthusiasts, for math educators in search of enrichment topics, and for anyone who loves to see beautiful objects in motion. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

the best there is
Any fan of mathematical puzzles will go ape over this thoroughly researched, timeless classic. Even for jaded scientists in their forties (such as me) and beyond, there's always some new gem to be discovered at the turn of a page. The scope of the book is immense, ranging from all manner of "classical" recreations to the puzzles of antiquity (e.g., squaring the circle) to the history of pi to the structure and functionality of the kaleidoscope. It's all here!

Must have for any recreational mathematician.
This is a timeless classic and a primary reference
for recreational mathematicians. And the price
is unbeatable.

A Classic Compendium...
This is a classic collection of mathematical recreations.Originallywritten by W.W. Rouse Ball around 1900, this edition has been updated bythe great geometer H.S.M. Coxeter.It is a comprehensive first source forinformation about magic squares, Platonic and Archimedian solids,"Knight's Tours" and other chessboard recreations, and just aboutany other variety of math-related puzzle you could name.

For amathematician, Coxeter is an excellent writer, and the book is quiteaccessible, even to relative math novices.Fans of Martin Gardner's books,of his "Scientific American" Mathematical Games columns, willwant to own this.And because it's published by Dover, the price is right,too. ... Read more