Math Games Books - Page 4

The Official Book of Kakuro: Book 1

Timothy E. Parker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Lacking challenge and consistency 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Most of the puzzles in this book were satisfying. Three of the latter "Medium" puzzles are irritating: two lack unique solutions (for example, the answer key has "3 1" immediately above "1 3," which is impossible to logically distinguish from "1 3" directly above "3 1") and one is actually invalid (the answer key has "2 1 2" as the solution to one "word," and there's no other way to solve it, as the three cells in question must add up to 5.) The other 147 puzzles in this collection are free of such errors. My only other grumble is about the difficulty; I did not notice a significant difference between the difficulty of the medium puzzles and the first 40 hard puzzles, though the last 10 hard puzzles were a significant step up from the first 40. Even the hardest puzzles are not as difficult as those in the Virgin books. I'd recommend this to people who are looking for a first experience with Kakuro, but those with experience with other publishers might want to look elsewhere for additional challenge.

Editorial Review:

Sharpen your pencils–and your wits–there’s a new puzzle in town. Millions of Sudoku fans around the world are discovering a brand new addiction: the brain-buster Kakuro. Combining the appeal of a crossword with the addictive properties of Sudoku, it’s the latest puzzle craze to come from Japan. Kakuro is more challenging, more compulsive, and more fun than anything you’ve played before.

Includes:
-50 Easy, 50 Medium, and 50 Hard puzzles
-Rules, Tips and Strategies
-A "unique sum chart" that is the key to unlocking the logic of Kakuro

More Art Puzzles By Number: From Easy to Mind Bending

Kathy Weaver

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Too Easy 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I am interested in books for advanced solvers. I am not well, and books like this help me pass the time when I am confined to my house.

Great Large Print 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As a reader of large-print books, I adore Kathy Weaver's puzzles. I never have to dig out my magnifying glass. And the pages of this book do not fall out the way her other book did.

More Art Puzzles By Number: From Easy to Mind Bending 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Very entertaining and absorbing. Great stress reliever and gets the brain really working. A wonderful way to "get away". You feel like you have really accomplished something when you solve the puzzle. Hours and hours of great entertainment.

Not very challenging 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I truly enjoy Kathy Weaver's creativity, but I'm making the same complaint I made with the last book. Most of the puzzles are too easy! She has a tendency toward symmetry which almost gives away the puzzle.

I would think it would be a wonderful book for beginners, though! If you've never tried Hanjie and you're thinking about it, give this book a shot. Good quality paper is combined with reasonable sized grids and the final results are the puzzles are usually fun! Also, if you're looking for a book to carry in your purse to fill in time while waiting at the dentist's office, this is the way to go.

Editorial Review:

Popular, challenging, and Fun for teens and adults. Utah State Textbook Commission has placed this book on its list as "Recommended Student Resource" for Mathematics / Pre-Algebra grade levels 7-12 for its emphasis on indirect reasoning skills. Test your logic and problem solving skills in geometric puzzles that create a work of art.

The Big Book of Kakuro

Mark Huckvale

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Mixed Reactions 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I was disappointed at the small size of many of the puzzles. Some were as small as 4x4 and took less than 1 minute to solve for anyone who has worked Kakuro puzzles before. Half of the puzzles were 9x9 or smaller. However, this could make the book attractive to those new to Kakuro...they could develop some sense of accomplishment on the early, small and easy puzzles. Another positive, 20% of the puzzles were hybrid Kakuro-Sodoku puzzles. I've not seen these elsewhere and I found them delightfully challenging and complicated.

Editorial Review:

Hooked on Su Doku? Then get ready for Kakuro with 200 challenging new puzzles from the creator of the bestselling Big Book of Su Doku series.

Hot on the heels of Su Doku comes Kakuro, the latest Japanese puzzle craze. Like Su Doku, Kakuro is solved by using logic—with a twist. Taking puzzling a step further, Kakuro requires simple adding skills as well as reasoning. But don't worry, you don't have to be a math whiz to enjoy Kakuro. If you can do sums of single digits in your head, you're all set. The Big Book of Kakuro features 200 brand new puzzles graded for levels of difficulty—including unique Su Doku-Kakuro hybrid puzzles—and valuable tips and advice on how to solve Kakuro number grids.

Crimes And Mathdemeanors

Leith Hathout

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Ideal for high school libraries, classroom use, and for adults who want to keep their math skills sharp! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Crimes and Mathdemeanors is an Encyclopedia Brown-style book of short detective stories for young adults and adults alike - to test their mathematics skills and knowledge! Ravi, the 14-year-old math genius, must apply his knowledge of math and physics and his general cleverness to deduce the answers to riddles, mysteries, and puzzles. Tales rely on trigonometry, probability, combinatorics, and deductive reasoning to uncover the secret of whodunnit in this delightful educational and learning tool. Ideal for high school libraries, classroom use, and for adults who want to keep their math skills sharp!

Editorial Review:

This collection of short detective stories provides an exciting new challenge for young adults who have graduated beyond the ever-popular Encyclopedia Brown mysteries series and are interested in applying high school level mathematics and physics to solve problems. The main character, Ravi, is a 14-year-old math genius who helps the local police solve cases. Each chapter is a detective story with a mathematical puzzle at its core that Ravi is able to solve; the author invites the reader to solve the case on his or her own and then explains the mathematics used to find the solution to the puzzle.

Mathematical Puzzles: A Connoisseur's Collection

Peter Winkler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Some of the best puzzles ever published. 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I have seen the word connoisseur used to describe collections before, but when I sat down to write this review I realized that I did not know the precise usage of the term. Therefore, I pulled out my Webster's dictionary and looked it up. It was "a person who has expert knowledge and keen discrimination in some field, esp. the fine arts or in matters of taste." In terms of keen discrimination, the term applies to the puzzles in this book. They are some of the best puzzles ever published, although those who follow the field will have seen many before, although perhaps in an altered form.
However, expert knowledge is not required to understand and solve the puzzles. The level of mathematical knowledge is that of detailed knowledge of basic algebraic and reasoning techniques. Like the very best puzzles, solving them requires a bit of "sideways" thinking. In other words, the most obvious approach to a puzzle will most likely lead to bafflement, but if you look at it just the right way, the solution is obvious. Furthermore, once the inspiration arrives, you know that you indeed have the solution.
In all honesty, I struggled with many of these puzzles. Sometimes, I was just being stupid, and other times I doubt if the solution would have ever managed to form in my thoughts. Fortunately, solutions to nearly all of the problems are included. The final chapter contains unsolved puzzles, which seems like a bit of a misnomer, and in a real sense it is. These are really unsolved problems, their topic is just one that fits inside what is generally considered the puzzle genre.
I loved this book, even when I was so frustrated I wanted to chop it with my very sharp axe. These puzzles will stretch you to the breaking point, which is of course a prerequisite for being among the best ever created.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

Editorial Review:

This collection includes more than 100 of the best (and some of the toughest)mathematical puzzles ever to appear in one volume.

You'll need a love for mathematical reasoning and a streak of determination. You won't need a professional acquaintance with mathematics; a motivated high school student has what it takes! If you're up to the challenge, there's even a chapter on Unsolved Puzzles.

The Big Book of Kakuro Puzzles

Conceptis Puzzles

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

The Big Book of Tiny Kakuro Puzzles 2 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

The front cover shows puzzles that are 13x22 spaces (if I remember right), but every puzzle inside is only 10x10 (9x9 effective, since the top and left lines are not open). This is fine for beginners, but is a big disappointment for anyone used to bigger puzzles. It is also rather deceptive advertising. My suggestion would be to buy the Dell Kakuro Cross Sums magazines (less than 3 dollars at Wal-Mart), which comes out quarterly. I find them much more satisfying than the "bite-size" puzzles in this book. BTW, Dell has been putting out these puzzles since 1950 under the title "Cross Sums".

Editorial Review:

What kakuro fan could resist this huge collection? Featuring 940 grids in varying levels of difficulty, it has more than enough to satisfy even the most avid enthusiast.

Half sudoku, half crossword, language-free kakuro is set to become the next worldwide puzzle phenomenon. The basics are simple: just fill in the empty squares using numbers from 1 to 9 so that the sum of each horizontal set of squares equals the clue on its left, and the sum of each vertical set of squares equals the clue on the top. No number can appear more than once in any sum.

An introduction explains all the rules, gives good solving tips, and takes beginners through a sample puzzle.

White Belt Kakuro: 150 Puzzles (Martial Arts Kakuro)

Conceptis Puzzles

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

If you like Sudoku, you will be challenged with Kakuro 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I like to consider myself a puzzle lover, and even though I haven't mastered Sudoku (I'm a second-degree brown belt), I switched over to Kakuro in the hopes of improving my problem-solving "a-ha" abilities.

Kakuro is similar to sudoku but incorporates more of a numerical crossword puzzle framework. At times I feel like I'm relearning arithmetic; even though the equations are the sum of single digits, there are numerous combinations which make you feel like you're a first grader (aka "how could I have added 1+2+3 and get 7?").

The great thing about this series is that on the last page of the book, there is a list of unique combinations, which are key to solving the puzzles (e.g. a three-digit combination for 24 can only consist of 7+8+9). You will find yourself relying heavily on this sheet because, after all, the numbers will soon start to blend together, but in a good way.

Another side effect from kakuro is that when I returned to my sudoku puzzles, I found that I was challenged again, and that is just as good of a feeling as solving the puzzle itself.

Editorial Review:

Kakuro is the next hot puzzle craze, and everyone can give it a try with this new, multilevel series. These language-free number puzzles use pure logic and require just simple arithmetic to solve. So, in addition to being fun, they help develop your powers of deduction and reasoning. Beginners can get started - and more experienced solvers hone their skills - with these perfectly tiered "belt" books, each containing 150 kakuros. They take their cue from the belt colors in martial arts: white is for novices, green for intermediates, brown for very accomplished players, and black for those consummate experts who crave a challenge.

The Mathematics of Oz: Mental Gymnastics from Beyond the Edge

Clifford A. Pickover

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Grab a pencil. Relax. Then take off on a mind-boggling journey to the ultimate frontier of math, mind, and meaning as acclaimed author Clifford Pickover, Dorothy, and Dr. Oz explore some of the oddest and quirkiest highways and byways of the numerically obsessed. The thought-provoking mysteries, puzzles, and problems range from zebra numbers and circular primes to Legion's number--a number so big that it makes a trillion pale in comparison. The strange mazes, bizarre consequences, and dizzying arrays of logic problems entertain readers at all levels of mathematical sophistication. The tests devised by enigmatic Dr. Oz to assess human intelligence will tease the brain of even the most avid puzzle fan. They feature a host of mathematical topics: geometry and mazes, sequences, series, sets, arrangements, probability and misdirection, number theory, arithmetic, and even several problems dealing with the physical world. With numerous illustrations, this is an original, fun-filled, and unusual introduction to numbers and their role in creativity, computers, games, practical research, and absurd adventures that teeter on the edge of logic and insanity. Clifford A. Pickover is the author of over twenty highly acclaimed books on such topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics, black holes, human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life, and science fiction. Among his books are Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty (St. Martin's Press, 1990), Wonders of Numbers (Oxford University Press, 2000), Dreaming the Future (Prometheus, 2001), The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars (Princeton University Press, 2001), The Stars of Heaven (Oxford University Press, 2001), The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience (Palgrave, 2002). A Ph.D. graduate of Yale University, he is a prolific inventor with dozens of patents, the associate editor for several journals, the author of colorful puzzle calendars, and puzzle contributor to adult and children's magazines. Pickover's computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular magazines and on T.V. shows.

Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight

Martin Gardner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Contradiction or not? 4 out of 5 stars.
14 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Aha! Gotcha is filled with very different types of puzzles than aha! Insight, which has many problems to solve. This book just presents many fun paradoxes that make you use your head, and while some of them are problems you have to take some time to solve, most are short paradoxical situations that you can think about for a short while and then go on the next page. It is easy to read, and Gardner again shows his skill in explaining interesting phenomena in a clear and interesting way. All the problems are good exercises on logical thinking and introduces various concepts of mathematics and statistics without seeming like you're studying. It is insightful enough for adults, but I think children would be able to understand these concepts too if they are interested.

Aha! Gotcha:Puzzles that Delight and Inform 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This amazingly useful book presents the concept of paradoxes in a comfortable, light format that makes it easily presentable to children in addition to the fun cartoon drawings that accompany every paradox. Simple explanations allow enough depth to encourage further explanation of the topic. In addition, it is helpful for writing reports about paradoxes.

Why Do Buses Come in Threes?

Rob Eastaway, Jeremy Wyndham

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Deals in a very entertaining way with problems in normal life related to mathematics, luck, coincidence, gambling." – The Independent (London)

Why do your chances of winning the lottery increase if you buy your ticket on Friday? Why do traffic lights always seem to be red when youre in a hurry? Is bad luck just chance, or can it be explained?

The intriguing answers to these and other questions about the curiosities of everyday life can be found in this delightfully irreverent and highly informative book. Why Do Buses Come in Threes? explains how math and the laws of probability are constantly at work in our lives, affecting everything we do, from getting a date to catching a bus to cooking dinner. With great humor and a genuine love for the subject, Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham present solutions to such conundrums as how fast one should run in the rain to stay dry and who was the greatest sportsman of all time.Discover the mathematical explanations for the strange coincidence of two.

Presidents dying on July 4, the uncanny "accuracy" of horoscopes, and other not-so-coincidental coincidences. Eastaway and Wyndham also reveal how television ratings work, which numbers are more likely to be big winners in the lottery, and why bad things, just like buses, always seem to happen in threes.

Whether you have a degree in astrophysics or havent touched a math problem since high school, this book sends you on a fascinating journey through the logic of life where Newtons laws explain bar fights, exploding rabbit populations, and why showers always run either too hot or too cold. Why Do Buses Come in Threes? is a delightfully entertaining ride that reveals the relevance of math in absolutely everything we do.