Entertainment math
Under entertainment mathematics is defined as the study of mathematical problems, which is operated primarily under the aspect of the pastime. This also includes brain teasers , mathematical puzzles and humorous glosses , which often present current topics in mathematics in an entertaining way. Examples of this are the mathematical conversations in the science magazine Spectrum of Science and the Logelei von Zweistein in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit .
Typical topics
Typical topics in entertainment mathematics are:
- geometric puzzles and constructions (for example Tangram , Pentaminos , the Tower of Hanoi or Rubik's Cube ),
- Logic brain teasers and paradoxes ,
- number theoretic and combinatorial gimmicks (e.g. magic squares , Sudoku ).
- mathematical games such as chess problems , solitaire or the Nim game . A typical example of entertainment math is the Hilberthotel .
Authors
Well-known authors of entertainment mathematics are:
- Claude Bachet (1581-1638)
- Jean Leurechon (1591-1670)
- Jacques Ozanam (1640-1718)
- Wilhelm Ahrens (1872–1927), author of Mathematical Entertainments and Games , 1910
- Walter William Rouse Ball (1850–1925), author of Mathematical recreations and essays 1892
- Édouard Lucas (1842-1891)
- Sam Loyd (1841-1911)
- Henry Dudeney (1857-1930)
- Maurice Kraitchik (1882–1957)
- Walther Lietzmann (1880–1959)
- Hugo Steinhaus (1887–1972)
- John Horton Conway (1937-2020)
- Martin Gardner (1914-2010), for many years the author of the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American
- Douglas R. Hofstadter (* 1945), designed the column Metamagical Topics in Scientific American as the successor to Gardner, also published as a book
- Boris Anastasjewitsch Kordemsky (1907–1999)
- Ian Stewart (* 1945), one of Gardner's successors at Scientific American
- Raymond Smullyan (1919–2017), author of several entertaining puzzle books on logic
- Ross Honsberger (1929-2016)
- Clifford A. Pickover (born 1957)
- Ilan Vardi (* 1957)
- Julian Havil (* 1952)
In Germany there are columns on entertainment mathematics and the like. a. from
- Gero von Randow (* 1953), editor of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit (like his father Thomas von Randow , "Zweistein")
- Heinrich Hemme (* 1955), author a. a. by Cogito in the magazine Bild der Wissenschaft
- Christoph Pöppe , science journalist at Spektrum der Wissenschaft
literature
The best known periodical is the Journal of Recreational Mathematics . Many other math journals, such as the American Mathematical Monthly and the Mathematical Intelligencer, have and have had sections on entertaining mathematics . Literature on entertainment mathematics can be found in the biographical articles on the main representatives mentioned above.
A collection of exercises from the Göttingen Mathematical Correspondence Circle is available online:
- Mathematical correspondence circle Göttingen (Hrsg.): Voller Knobeleien . Universitätsverlag, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-930457-76-8 ( full text, PDF )
More books:
- Albert H. Beiler: Recreations in the theory of numbers. The queen of mathematics entertains. Dover Publ. 1964, 2nd ed. 1966 ISBN 0-486-21096-0 .
In the general systematics for public libraries , the topic of entertainment mathematics is listed under the signature Tf (T = mathematics).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kaleidoscope of Mathematics. Deutscher Verlag der Wiss., Berlin 1959
- ^ Computational recreations in Mathematica . Addison-Wesley 1991, ISBN 0-201-52989-0 .