• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

(I found this chapter a challenge because of having to restrain myself from the temptation to make terrible puns about pi. Mathematicians have a congenital propensity to overpun. When we see a word we can’t help but break it down and rearrange it, which probably also explains why the world’s top Scrabble players are maths and computer-science graduates, not linguists.)

Arndt, J., and Haenel, C., Pi Unleashed, Springer, London, 2002

Beckmann, P., A History of Pi, St Martin’s Press, New York, 1971

Berggren L., Borwein J., and Borwein P., Pi: A Source Book, Springer, London, 2003

Bidder, G., A short Account of George Bidder, the celebrated Mental Calculator: with a Variety of the most difficult Questions, Proposed to him at the principal Towns in the Kingdom, and his surprising rapid Answers!, W.C. Pollard, 1821

Colburn, Z., A memoir of Zerah Colburn, written by himself, G. & C. Merriam, Springfield, MA, 1833

Rademacher, H., and Torplitz, O., The Enjoyment of Mathematics, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1957

Aitken, A.C., ‘The Art of Mental Calculation; with Demonstrations’, Society of Engineers Journal and Transactions, 1954

Preston, R., ‘The Mountains of Pi’, New Yorker, 1992

CHAPTER FIVE

Acheson, D., 1089 and all that, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002

Berlinski, D., Infinite Ascent, The Modern Library, New York, 2005

Dale, R., The Sinclair Story, Duckworth, London, 1985

Derbyshire, J., Unknown Quantity, Atlantic Books, London, 2006

Hopp, P.M., Slide Rules, Their History, Models and Makers, Astragal Press, New Jersey, 1999

Maor, E., e: The Story of a Number, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1994

Rade, L., and Kaufman, B.A., Adventures with Your Pocket Calculator, Pelican, London, 1980

Schlossberg, E., and Brockman, J., The Pocket Calculator Game Book, William Morrow, New York, 1975

Vine, J., Fun & Games with Your Electronic Calculator, Babani Press, London, 1977 (published in the US as Boggle, Price, Stern, Sloane Publishers, Los Angeles, CA, 1975)

CHAPTER SIX

The Mother Goose/Liber Abaci sequence of powers of seven also appears in modified form in Islamic folklore: the Angel of Mohammed is said to have 70,000 heads, each of which has 70,000 faces, each with 70,000 mouths, each with 70,000 tongues, each speaking 70,000 languages. Which makes a grand total of about 1.7 million billion billion languages.

I found Dudeney’s articles in Strand Magazine brilliantly well written, irrespective of the genius of the puzzles, and well worth a read. I am grateful to Angela Newing, the world expert on Henry Dudeney, for some of the biographical details, and to Jerry Slocum, for solving all my other puzzles about puzzles. If anyone wants an ambigram tattoo, check out Mark Palmer’s creations at www.wowtattoos.com.

Bachet, C.G., Amusing and Entertaining Problems that can be Had with Numbers (very useful for inquisitive people of all kinds who use arithmetic), Paris, 1612

Bodycombe, D.J., The Riddles of the Sphinx, Penguin, London, 2007

Danesi, M., The Puzzle Instinct, University of Indiana Press, Indianapolis, IN, 2002

Elffers, J., and Schuyt, M., Tangram, 1997

Gardner, M., Mathematics, Magic and Mystery, Dover, New York, 1956

Hardy, G.H., A Mathematician’s Apology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1940

Hooper, W., Rational Recreations, in which the principles of Numbers and Natural Philosophy are clearly and copiously elucidated by a series of easy, entertaining, interesting experiments, among which are all those commonly performed with the cards, London, 1774

Loyd, S., The 8th Book of Tan Part I, 1903; new edition Dover, New York, 1968

Maor, E., Trigonometric Delights, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1998

Netz, R., and Noel, W., The Archimedes Codex, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2007

Pasles, P.C., Benjamin Franklin’s Numbers, Princeton Universityess, NJ, 2008

Pickover, C.A., The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles and Stars, Princeton University Press, NJ, 2002

Rouse Ball, W.W., Mathematical Recreations and Problems, Macmillan,