Ancient Puzzles: Classic Brainteasers and Other Timeless Mathematical Games of the Last Ten Centuries

by Dominic Olivastro

Match wits with the great minds of the world’s greatest civilizations in this fascinating collection of ancient conundrums, brainteasers, and mind-benders.
 
• What do prehistoric bone markings and modern computer science have in common?
• What is the mystery of pi that stumped generations of ancient mathematicians?
• What are the ancient puzzle origins of popular games such as tic-tac-toe and chess?
• Can you solve the puzzles posed to emperor Charlemagne by Alcuin of York?
• What’s the secret lore behind magic squares that captured the imagination of Chinese emperors, Persian mystics, and Benjamin Franklin?
 
Dominic Olivastro presents a popular history of mathematics by focusing on the puzzles that civilizations posed for their own education and entertainment. Here are classic “puzzle problems” from ancient Africa, Egypt, Persia, China, and Greece and from cultures and texts spanning the Middle Ages and the Renaissance all the way to the present.
 
Each puzzle is linked with insightful folk and scientific history that helps shed light on the mysterious purpose and origin of the problem. Fascinating clues for figuring out answers draw on modern problem-solving techniques and lead to ancient secrets that, before now, have rarely been understood. Whether you decipher them for their historical significance, classical wisdom, or just for the sheer, maddening fun of it, these delightful puzzles provide a unique, entertaining, and enlightening guide to the evolution of the human mind.

Genres: Puzzles, Science

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1993

Reviews

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book uses old, classic puzzles as a starting point to discuss various aspects of the history of mathematics, give biographical tidbits about famous mathematicians, tell a little folklore related to the puzzles, and most of all, teach about the math behind the puzzles, including how it has been extended in the present day. The hodgepodge of subjects may not be for everybody, but I found it fascinating. Olivastro's explanations are very clear (though there are a handful of places where his text does not match his figures, which is why I did not give a five-star rating). The reader should have enough math background to have experience with simple proofs, but I think no more than that is required.

[Sarah Rigg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe a little dry in places for people who don't have a math/philosophy/logic background, but I loved it. It includes a lot of the classic logic problems like the 7 bridges of Konigsberg as well as lots of cool information about "magic squares." Delightful, makes your brain work but also a lot of fun.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicht so gut wie Gardner, aber gar nicht schlecht.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong 3.5 stars for anyone interested in the development of mathematical concepts through history. From the first pages I was fascinated by some of the trivia (like why we use the word "check" in banking, why many clocks use IIII instead of IV, or how to translate numbers into binary code, etc.). The heart of this book, though, is to celebrate where ideas were first considered and solved. Reading this book will give you a new appreciation for Egypt and China's contribution (and make you feel a little disappointed by Western civilizations).

The book attempts to balance historical concepts with technical demonstrations, which is both the book's strength and weakness. I was bored by what amounts to essentially page after page of computation, yet I could see how a more math-oriented person would find it interesting.

I'm counting this as "a book about ancient history" for 2016 #vtReadingChallenge

[Dokusha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dies ist ein Buch über einige klassische mathematische Rätsel und Objekte sowie die Geschichte ihrer Entstehung oder Entdeckung. Vieles, was berühmten europäischen Mathematikern der Neuzeit zugeschrieben wird, läßt sich bereits in alten chinesischen Quellen nachweisen, wie zum Beispiel das Pascalsche Dreieck oder die Fibonacci-Zahlen.
Über diese Themen, daneben auch über magische Quadrate und Primzahlen wie auch Graphen lernt man viel Erstaunliches, von dem das eine oder andere auch dem neu sein dürfte, der sich schon mal mit dem Thema beschäftigt hat. Auch interessante Querverbindungen werden aufgezeigt.
Allen, die an mathematischen Rätseln oder Fragestellungen der Zahlentheorie interessiert sind, kann ich dieses Buch empfehlen.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the section dedicated to Egyptian mathematics. It even explains to the reader how the Egyptians approached solving problems by using multiplication and division (it is very different from our modern way of using these methods, but it's very fun to solve problems the Egyptian Way). I'd be very happy to reference this book in anything I compose.