Penrose tiles to trapdoor ciphers: –and the return of Dr. Matrix

Martin Gardner0883855216, 9780883855218

Included here are chapters on Conway’s surreal numbers, Mandelbrot’s fractals, and Smuyllyan’s logic puzzles, as well as puzzlers dealing with hyperbolas, negative numbers, pool-ball triangles, Penrose tiles, and trapdoor ciphers. And of course, you can read of the return of Dr. Irving Joshua Matrix (famed numerologist and CIA operative), one of Martin Gardner’s oldest fictional friends.Gardner considers himself a philosophical theist in the tradition of Plato, Kant, Pierre Bayle, Charles Peirce, William James and Miguel do Unamuno. He and his wife Charlotte live quietly in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

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Table of contents :
HOME……Page 0
CONTENTS……Page 8
Preface……Page 10
Penrose Tiling……Page 11
Penrose Tiling II……Page 29
Mandelbrot’s Fractals……Page 41
Conway’s Surreal Numbers……Page 59
Back from the Klondike and Other Problems……Page 73
The Oulipo……Page 88
The Oulipo II……Page 103
Wythoff’s Nim……Page 111
Pool-Ball Triangles and 0ther Problems……Page 127
Mathematical Induction and Colored Hats……Page 145
Negative Numbers……Page 158
Cutting Shapes into N Congruent Putts……Page 171
Trapdoor Ciphers……Page 192
Trapdoor Ciphers II……Page 203
Hyperbolas……Page 213
The New Eleusis……Page 227
Ramsey Theory……Page 238
From Burrs to Berrocal……Page 255
Sicherman Dice, the Kruskal Count and 0ther Curiosities……Page 271
Raymond Smullyan’s Logic Puzzles……Page 287
The Return of Dr. Matrix……Page 299
Postscript……Page 313
Name Index……Page 321