SOLVED. "Math for Smarty Pants" Children's book - Mathematics, Paradoxes, Factorials, Logic Problems? [s]

[Luke]

I had a book in about 1995 of which I can't remember the title. It was a book targeted at children with sections on a variety of interesting mathematical concepts, like factorials, perfect and prime numbers, paradoxes (I remember a segment on the barbershop Paradox), and lots of other things.

The book had lots of pictures, and a few different recurring characters that explained the various concepts. Some pages were comic-book-like, with panels and dialogue. Here's the distinct topics I can remember having features:

The Barbershop Paradox

Perfect numbers

Prime numbers

Dollar words (where a=1, b=2, etc., words that add up to 100) ("Prevent inflation")

Factorials (I distinctly remember one of the characters saying "3!" and another character wondering why they were shouting a number) - they explained this concept using the number of possible line orders for people standing in line for ice cream

Algebraic word problems - they had a tug of war competition where "three bodybuilders pull as hard as five grandmothers, two grandmothers and a bodybuilder pull as hard as a St. Bernard, who would win between..."

The game Mastermind, except they called it "donut" or "bagel" or something...

The physical book itself was fairly large, but it wasn't hardbound; it was about magazine-size, but sturdier than that. I vaguely remember it being light-colored, with large black print for the title.

One of the characters in the book had large frizzy hair and glasses, and I think his name was IQ?

If I remember anything else that was in the book, I'll add it; there were tons more concepts. I remember learning so much from it when I was younger; I'd love to be able to see it again for nostalgia.

Anyone have any ideas?

[stormhawk]

Do you remember if Martin Gardner (who did the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American for many years) was involved?

[Luke]

I feel so silly now. Within ten minutes of posting this, I finally found the book!

It's "Math for Smarty Pants", by Marylin Burns. I feel like I lost my car in a parking lot and found it as soon as I asked someone to help me find it.