What do you think?
Rate this book
Math-E-magic: 169 astonishing Numerical Challenges
This enormous volume of math puzzles will test how sharp readers are with numbers and provide hours of fun.
There are mind bogglers of every type - from amazing 'magic' number tricks to beautiful geometric designs - and plenty of them too! This starts with puzzles that are fairly easy and builds up to ones that are really challenging.
Tricks and hints provide help along the way that will make the reader look like a whiz!
There are mind bogglers of every type - from amazing 'magic' number tricks to beautiful geometric designs - and plenty of them too! This starts with puzzles that are fairly easy and builds up to ones that are really challenging.
Tricks and hints provide help along the way that will make the reader look like a whiz!
280 pages, Paperback
First published November 2, 2010
15 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 13, 2014
This little book of math puzzles is perfect as an entertaining and educational resource for kids. The cool tricks involve coins, cards, paper, clips, calendars, and other household tools. Some of the tricks may require a calculator. The tricks aren’t based on complicated mathematical functions, but rather use basic operations such as addition and multiplication. Furthermore, many of the tricks involve playing around with geometrical shapes. Alongside tricks and puzzles, interesting math facts are also provided. For example, if you divide 100 by 81, the result is 1.23456789!
Descriptions of the puzzles are easily comprehendible, and are accompanied by comical pictures to keep the book interesting. Even though the book is handy and small, there is enough space for the reader to write and try out the tricks. Answers for the puzzles can be found in the back of the book. For the tricks, thorough explanation for why the trick works is given, and exceptions to when the trick might not work are also provided.
The book begins with a glossary to review some math terms. However, none of these are too advanced. Next, the book is broken up into sections such as Tricks of the Trade- which has certain tricks to memorize math rules. For example, the Order of Operations is often remembered by using Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. The rest of the sections are astonishing math tricks that work, math puzzles to get one thinking, and math challenges to test one’s sharpness at math.
I found this book to be really interesting, however I felt that some of them wouldn’t classify as a puzzle. For example, one of the “puzzles” is to find the number of diagonals that can be drawn from one point to another in an octagon. This isn’t really a puzzle, it just requires basic counting. Furthermore, I thought some of the explanations for the tricks were a little long and tedious. Other than that, I think this book is great for an interesting, yet brain-sharpening tool.
Recommended for grades 4 and up.
Raaga, Grade 9
Descriptions of the puzzles are easily comprehendible, and are accompanied by comical pictures to keep the book interesting. Even though the book is handy and small, there is enough space for the reader to write and try out the tricks. Answers for the puzzles can be found in the back of the book. For the tricks, thorough explanation for why the trick works is given, and exceptions to when the trick might not work are also provided.
The book begins with a glossary to review some math terms. However, none of these are too advanced. Next, the book is broken up into sections such as Tricks of the Trade- which has certain tricks to memorize math rules. For example, the Order of Operations is often remembered by using Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. The rest of the sections are astonishing math tricks that work, math puzzles to get one thinking, and math challenges to test one’s sharpness at math.
I found this book to be really interesting, however I felt that some of them wouldn’t classify as a puzzle. For example, one of the “puzzles” is to find the number of diagonals that can be drawn from one point to another in an octagon. This isn’t really a puzzle, it just requires basic counting. Furthermore, I thought some of the explanations for the tricks were a little long and tedious. Other than that, I think this book is great for an interesting, yet brain-sharpening tool.
Recommended for grades 4 and up.
Raaga, Grade 9
Displaying 1 of 1 review