The 2nd Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles Diversions

This delightful collection of Martin Gardner's mathematical entertainments introduces readers to the Generalized Ham Sandwich Theorem, origami, digital roots, magic squares, the mathematics of cooling coffee, an update of the Induction Game of Eleusis, Dudeney puzzles, the maze at Hampton Court Palace, and many more mathematical puzzles and principles. Reading Gardner is like watching a dazzling performance by a magician who explains every trick so quickly and neatly that each explanation seems like a new trick in itself. He may begin with disarming simple instructions for constructing a tetrahedron out of an envelope, and after a few surprises ("a cube can be passed through a hole in a smaller cube') move straight from tricks with rubber bands into Euclid's proof of why there can be no more than five Platonic solids.