Mathematical games

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1. analog31Apr 2025
   I wish I remembered the series of math books that my school system used. It was during the "new math" movement. We learned about sets in first grade. Proofs were introduced fairly early. There were problems for which "no answer" was the correct answer.

   If you could find a collection of the Mathematical Games articles from Scientific American, those were entertaining and required little background knowledge, but conveyed the fun of math.

   Geometry is a good subject because it doesn't have very many prerequisites other than basic arithmetic, and the older textbooks were mostly about proofs. (Note I'm biased, proofs are what made math come alive for me).

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2. morninglightDec 2023
   Scientific American needs to look in a mirror.

   There was a time when they gave meaningful direction to young readers.

   Albert G. Ingalls, "The Back Yard Astronomer." Martin Gardner, "Mathematical Games" C. L. Stong. "The Amateur Scientist"

   After Stongs death, SciAm displayed a halfhearted attempt to keep a few back pages, but around 2000 they dumped the whole idea of citizen science.

   Despite the launch of a nationwide "Maker Movement" SciAm's new management couldn't understand why anyone would care. Today, the publication has made itself irrelevant.

   This generation has found a new outlet for DIY science and it is called YouTube. Maybe you should check it out. You might learn something.

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3. Doctor-RJun 2023
   Martin Gardner wrote a monthly column in Scientific American called Mathematical Games. He introduced me and other readers to: Conway's Game of Life, fractals, Penrose Tiles, flexagons, M. C. Escher, Godel, Escher, Bach, polyoninoes and many other logic problems. There was a learning AI algorithm that used small labeled matchboxes and colored buttons.

   The column was continued by Douglas Hofstadter.

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4. JtsummersJul 2022
   If you liked this, you ought to check out Gardner's articles themselves:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner_bibliography#%2... - That's a list of the books (and on that page many other things) collecting Gardner's Scientific American "Mathematical Games" articles.

   https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/mathematics/s... - First 4 of the reprints available here (or a bookseller of your choice).

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5. AngosturaJul 2018
   > Metamagical Themes

   It's Metamagica Themas, I think - an anagram of 'Mathematical Games'; the Martin Gardner's column in Scientific American which proceeded it.

   A lovely book.

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6. todd8Jun 2018
   Growing up I read every monthly edition Scientific American’s The Amateur Scientist column by C. L. Strong. In the May 1964 column there was a great “getting started” introduction to laboratory glassblowing for the complete amateur. I was only 12 years old, but it got me so interested that I tried it myself. You can see that it’s not too hard to make very simple glass accessories. Realistically, real laboratories require much more complex glassware. It doesn’t take too much equipment to get started.

   Sadly, the old Amateur Scientist columns are hard to come by unless you have access to a library with Sci American going back to 1952. (The old Mathematical Games columns by the late Martin Gardner are great too. I first read about public key encryption just a few months after Rivest, Shamir and Adleman wrote the MIT memo on it because it appeared in the August 1977 column by Gardner.)

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