Exploring Math Through Puzzles: Step-by-Step Instructions for Making Over 50 Puzzles

Exploring Math Through Puzzles: Step-by-Step Instructions for Making Over 50 Puzzles

Exploring Math Through Puzzles includes step-by-step instructions for making a Soma Cube, Instant Insanity, the Chinese Rings and more than 50 other puzzles. All the puzzles can be made from the simplest of materials—strings, beads, wire, and common household items—and can be solved by even novice puzzle makers. This fun and informative book contains extensive notes that discuss the history and the background of each puzzle. The book also provides practical tips for making the puzzles and lists of materials and additional resources. The puzzles in this book were selected to inspire thinking about a wide range of mathematical topics—and they emphasize three-dimensional visualization and problem-solving in an enjoyable, hands-on context. Parents and teachers will appreciate the related mathematical activities that are also included. Puzzlers of all ages will be fascinated by making and solving their own puzzles— and then using them to challenge friends and family. Exploring Math Through Puzzles makes exploring math fun! "Wei Zhang has let out a secret! Mechanical puzzles that are invented to entertain also instruct. Many top mathematicians are fascinated by puzzles. The great mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibnitz, co-inventor of calculus with Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century, wrote of his pleasure in solving peg solitaire problems. Topology and graph theory had their origins in Leonhard Euler's eighteenth-century analysis of a popular puzzle about traversing the seven bridges of Königsberg, Germany, without crossing any bridge twice. Exploring Math Through Puzzles provides the link between puzzles and the math classroom. I'm sure it will stimulate and excite students and will result in creative thinking and improved learning. It's a wonderful addition to puzzle literature!" -Jerry Slocum, Beverley Hills, CA Wei Zhang was born in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province in China. As a child, her favorite book was The Moscow Puzzles by Boris Kordemsky. When she was 11 years old, she saw the Chinese Rings puzzles for the first time and immediately fell in love with it. Wei came to North America in 1983 for her education and training in linguistics and computer science. However, she finds it far more intriguing to roam in the world of mechanical puzzles. Wei is co-author of Ingenious Rings and Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hands and Mind.