New Releases by Martin Gardner

The second of fifteen updated editions of the collected Mathematical Games of Martin Gardner, king of recreational mathematics.

Published in 1955 under the direction of psychiatrist William Sadler, The Urantia Book is the largest and most sophisticated work of New Age literature ever produced. Well-known skeptic and acclaimed popular science writer Martin Gardner presents a complete history of the Urantia movement, from its beginnings in the early 20th century to the present day.

Gives kids the opportunity to play with the images. This pack also includes punch-out cards that enhance every illusion, plus a vinyl pouch for safely storing the cards afterwards. It helps children figure out if the two differently shaped tables in a picture are actually the same size, by laying a checkered tablecloth over them both.

Originally published in 1935, here is Martin Gardner''s collection of more than 70 impromptu tricks with matches. A Brownstone Classic of Magic.

This book contains scores of intriguing puzzles and paradoxes from Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, whose interests ranged from inventing new games like Arithmetical Croquet to important problems in symbolic logic and propositional calculus. Written by Carroll expert and well-known mathematics author Martin Gardner, this tour through Carroll''s inventions is both fun and informative.

Previously published separately, the two books aha! Gotcha and aha! Insight are here combined as a single volume. The aha! books, as they are referred to by fans of 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, that ''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. 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.''

This newly updated edition of a well-known work explores a pair of modern science''s most fundamental discoveries: the asymmetric DNA helix and the overthrow of parity (left-right symmetry) in particle physics. Absorbing and thought-provoking, The New Ambidextrous Universe was written by Martin Gardner, one of Dover''s most popular authors,.

In a society begging to be duped, Martin Gardner, the most devastating debunker of scientific fraud and chicanery of our time, ranges here from science and mathematics to literature, philosophy, religion, and mysticism. With keen skepticism, he skewers the fallacies of pseudoscience, from Dr. Bruno Bettelheim''s erroneous theory of autism to the farce of Primal Scream therapy, and he examines the bizarre tangents produced by Freudians and deconstructionists in their critiques of "Little Red Riding Hood." Book jacket.

Gardner muses on topics as diverse as numerology, the late Senator Clairborne Pell''s paranormal passions, Freud''s flawed dream theory, the Heaven''s Gate suicides, and the inexhaustible American appetite for third-rate science.

For many decades, Martin Gardner, the Grand Master of mathematical puzzles, has provided the tools and projects to furnish our all-too-sluggish minds with an athletic workout. Gardner''s problems foster an agility of the mind as they entertain. This volume presents a new collection of problems and puzzles not previously published in book form. Marti

A noted author defends his personal attitudes toward the fundamental issues of classical philosophy, discussing the awesome mystery surrounding science and life and explaining why he considers himself a theist.

This is the first edition of Chesterton''s masterpiece, The Man Who Was Thursday, that explicates and enriches the complete text with extensive footnotes, together with an introductory essay on the metaphysical meaning of Chesterton''s profound allegory. Gardner sees the novel''s anarchists as symbols of our God-given free will, and the mysterious Sunday as representing Nature, with its strange mixture of good and evil when considered as distinct from God, as a mask hiding the transcendental face of the creator. The book also includes a bibliography listing the novel''s many earlier editions and stage dramatizations, as well as numerous illustrations that further illuminate the text.

A collection of tricks, stunts, and puzzles that explore the properties of water, air, friction, heat, motion, light, and more.

Another superb collection of articles from Martin Gardner, the king of recreational mathematics.

The definitive work of Martin Gardner''s brilliant, seven-decades-long career, "The Night Is Large" collects 54 of the most significant essays by this popular writer best known for his "Mathematical Games" columns which appeared in "Scientific American" magazine for more than 25 years.

A collection of tricks, stunts, and puzzles that explore the properties of water, air, friction, heat, motion, light, and more.

At a time when popular knowledge of basic science has sunk to a new low and books promoting angels, parapsychology, and bizarre forms of medicine and healing outnumber skeptical books by more than a thousand to one, Americans need a voice of sanity. Weird Water and Fuzzy Logic introduces readers to mind-wrenching probability paradoxes, recent attacks on the Big Bang Theory, and Marianne Williamson''s success promoting The Course of Miracles, which is said to have been channeled by Jesus. Other columns address E-prime, a language that omits all forms of the verb "to be"; Norman Vincent Peale''s beliefs in the paranormal; repressed memory therapy; science blunders by famous writers; the influence of Transcendental Meditation on the career of Doug Henning; a critique of "Klingon" and other artificial languages; and much more.

Famed science writer Martin Gardner had intended to write a short essay about Mrs. Eddy, but he became so fascinated by her life and personality that his work grew to book length. Written with humor, insight, and a wealth of detail, this book will delight sceptics and infuriate true believers.

Offers a collection of assorted mathematical games and puzzles

In this lively collection, Gardner examines the rich and hilarious variety of pseudoscientific conjectures that dominate the media today. With a special emphasis on parapsychology and occultism, these witty pieces address the evidence put forth to support claims of ESP, psychokinesis, faith healing, and other pseudoscience.

Subtitled, Ten years of remarkable experiments with renowned clairvoyant Pavel Stepanek. Gardner details the weaknesses in the testing. No literature citations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A collection of brain teasers and mathematical puzzles from the pages of Scientific American. Annotation. These clearly and cleverly presented mathematical recreations of paradoxes and paperfolding, Moebius variations and mnemonics both ancient and modern delight and perplex while demonstrating principles of logic, probability, geometry, and other mathematical fields. Martin Gardner has turned a trick as neat as any in the book itself. He has selected a group of diversions which are not only entertaining but mathematically meaningful as well. The result is a work which is rewarding on almost every level of mathematical achievement.

Selections from his monthly column on mathematical recreations in the "Scientific American," with much new material, and comments from Mr. Gardner and his readers.

"Solving these riddles is not simply a matter of logic and calculation, though these play a role. Luck and inspiration are factors as well, so beginners and experts alike may profitably exercise their wits on Gardner''s problems, whose subjects range from geometry to word play to questions relating to physics and geology. We guarantee that you will solve some of these riddles, be stumped by others, and be amused by almost all of the stories and settings that Gardner has devised to raise these questions." --Back cover.

Playing with mathematical riddles can be an intriguing and fun-filled pastime — as popular science writer Martin Gardner proves in this entertaining collection. Puzzlists need only an elementary knowledge of math and a will to resist looking up the answer before trying to solve a problem. Written in a light and witty style, Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles is a mixture of old and new riddles, grouped into sections that cover a variety of mathematical topics: money, speed, plane and solid geometry, probability, topology, tricky puzzles, and more. The probability section, for example, points out that everything we do, everything that happens around us, obeys the laws of probability; geometry puzzles test our ability to think pictorially and often, in more than one dimension; while topology, among the "youngest and rowdiest branches of modern geometry," offers a glimpse into a strange dimension where properties remain unchanged, no matter how a figure is twisted, stretched, or compressed. Clear and concise comments at the beginning of each section explain the nature and importance of the math needed to solve each puzzle. A carefully explained solution follows each problem. In many cases, all that is needed to solve a puzzle is the ability to think logically and clearly, to be "on the alert for surprising, off-beat angles...that strange hidden factor that everyone else had overlooked." Fully illustrated, this engaging collection will appeal to parents and children, amateur mathematicians, scientists, and students alike, and may, as the author writes, make the reader "want to study the subject in earnest" and explains "some of the inviting paths that wind away from the problems into lusher areas of the mathematical jungle." 65 black-and-white illustrations.

The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix draws us into the intriguing and fascinating world of numbers and number theory. "Numbers, you know, have a mysterious life of their own. It would be naive," claims Dr. Matrix, "to suppose that there is such a thing as a randomly arranged group of symbols." Consider, for example, the decimal expansion of pi. Long considered a random series, it is actually rich with remarkable patterns. "Correctly interpreted," says Dr. Matrix, "pi conveys the entire history of the human race." Dr. Matrix uncovers patterns and signs that will astound you. As Dr. Matrix demonstrates, we need only look to find clues all around us in number and language "coincidences" that will unlock the mysteries of the universe. In The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix, Martin Gardner introduces us to this extraordinary man, Dr. Irving Joshua Matrix. Believed by many to be the greatest numerologist who ever lived, Dr. Matrix claims to be a reincarnation of Pythagoras. He was, however, completely unknown to the scientific community until Gardner wrote about him in Scientific American in 1960. That first report and the subsequent ones that appeared with each new encounter are collected here in their entirety. We follow Dr. Matrix as he roams the world and assumes new identities and discovers new manifestations of the power of numbers to explain and predict and entertain. Always at his side is his beautiful Eurasian daughter, Iva, who abets and protects her father in each new adventure. As you delve into The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix, you will master some significant combinatorial mathematics and number theory. The many remarkable puzzles of Dr. Matrix are all clearly answered in the back of the book, together with commentary and references by Gardner to enlighten the uninitiated and entertain the inquiring reader.