Most Popular Books by Martin Gardner

Brief introductions to space flight and the various bodies in the solar system are followed by sections of related puzzle questions. Answers are given at the back of the book.

Contains puzzles that first baffle and then delight problem solving addicts. Grew out of a collaboration between Bob Tappay and Martin Gardner to enliven the learning of mathematics.

Thirty-six science fiction stories contain brain-teasing puzzles for the reader to solve.

The Flight of Peter Fromm is a novel of ideas disguised as the biography of a young man from a Pentecostal fundamentalist background in Oklahoma, who loses his faith while a student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His spiritual odyssey is narrated by his mentor, a professor at the divinity school - who is actually a humanist who believes neither in God nor in an afterlife. Although Peter never abandons his theism or his admiration for Jesus, he reaches a point where he feels it would be hypocritical to remain within the church and to become the evangelist he had hoped to be. The counterpoint between Peter and the narrator reflects the eternal conflict between theism and atheism. In following the changes of Peter''s beliefs, almost every aspect of Protestant theology and ethics is explored. The evolution of Peter''s faith parallels the evolution of Christian theology, from the day of Pentecost to contemporary liberal theology.

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.

Best known as the longtime writer of the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American—which introduced generations of readers to the joys of recreational mathematics—Martin Gardner has for decades pursued a parallel career as a devastatingly effective debunker of what he once famously dubbed "fads and fallacies in the name of science." It is mainly in this latter role that he is onstage in this collection of choice essays. When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish takes aim at a gallery of amusing targets, ranging from Ann Coulter''s qualifications as an evolutionary biologist to the logical fallacies of precognition and extrasensory perception, from Santa Claus to The Wizard of Oz, from mutilated chessboards to the little-known "one-poem poet" Langdon Smith (the original author of this volume''s title line). The writings assembled here fall naturally into seven broad categories: Science, Bogus Science, Mathematics, Logic, Literature, Religion and Philosophy, and Politics. Under each heading, Gardner displays an awesome level of erudition combined with a wicked sense of humor.

This collection of essays by America''s foremost polymath delves into some of the many fascinating subjects in which Martin Gardner has had an abiding interest. Focusing primarily on literary and philosophical subjects, Order and Surprise is the sequel to the widely acclaimed Science: Good, Bad and Bogus. Some of Gardner''s best essays and reviews are included in this volume, such as:"Why Librarians Dislike Oz""The Strange Case of Robert Maynard Hutchins""H.G. Wells, ''Premature'' Anti-Communist""Orwell''s Nineteen Eighty-Four""Is Nature Ambidextrous?""Beyond Cultural Relativism""The Popperism of Sir Karl""Keeping Up With Einstein"In addition, Gardner has included many of his perceptive reviews of books by and about such authors as Franz Kafka, Thomas Wolfe, John Updike, Vance Packard, Colin Wilson, Lewis Carroll, and many others.In some cases the author has modified the original texts, sometimes restoring passages removed by editors, sometimes adding new footnotes to update the material. In many cases, Gardner has added a postscript that allows him to comment on an article or review. Like the previous anthology, this book is divided into two parts. The first contains articles in chronological order of publication; the second, book reviews in similar order.Order and Surprise represents Gardner at his best - incisive, witty, and urbane.

This delightful collection from the magician of math introduces readers to magic squares, the Generalized Ham Sandwich Theorem, origami, digital roots, an update of the Induction Game of Eleusis, Dudeney puzzles, the maze at Hampton Court palace, and many more mathematical puzzles and principles. "Gardner is often the clown prince of science. . . . His Mathematical Games column in Scientific American is one of the few bridges over C. P. Snow''s famous ''gulf of mutual incomprehension'' that lies between the technical and literary cultures."-Time

From coincidences that seem to violate the laws of time and space, to the perplexities of the rubber rope, to the centuries-old delights of tangram play, the puzzles, problems, and paradoxes presented in Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments reveal just how enlightening and entertaining mathematical recreations can be.

Traces the development of logic machines from diagrams of logical statements to modern computers and discusses the fundamentals of mathematical logic