The Last Recreations Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications

Of all of Martin Gardner's writings, none gained him a wider audience or was more central to his reputation than his Mathematical Recreations column in "Scientific American", which virtually defined the genre of popular mathematics writing for a generation. Flatland, Hydras and Eggs: Mathematical Mystifications will be the final collection of these columns, covering a period roughly from 1979 to Gardner's retirement as a regular columnist in 1986. The notable trend over Gardner's career is the increasing sophistication of the mathematics he has been able to translate into his famously lucid prose. These columns show him at the top of his form and are not to be missed by anyone with an interest in mathematics. As always in his published collections, Gardner includes letters received from mathematicians and other commenting on the ideas presented in the columns.

1 The Wonders of a Planiverse.- 2 Bulgarian Solitaire and Other Seemingly Endless Tasks.- 3 Fun with Eggs, Part I.- 4 Fun with Eggs, Part II.- 5 The Topology of Knots.- 6 M-Pire Maps.- 7 Directed Graphs and Cannibals.- 8 Dinner Guests, Schoolgirls, and Handcuffed Prisoners.- 9 The Monster and Other Sporadic Groups.- 10 Taxicab Geometry.- 11 The Power of the Pigeonhole.- 12 Strong Laws of Small Primes.- 13 Checker Recreations, Part I.- 14 Checker Recreations, Part II.- 15 Modulo Arithmetic and Hummer’s Wicked Witch.- 16 Lavinia Seeks a Room and Other Problems.- 17 The Symmetry Creations of Scott Kim.- 18 Parabolas.- 19 Non-Euclidean Geometry.- 20 Voting Mathematics.- 21 A Toroidal Paradox and Other Problems.- 22 Minimal Steiner Trees.- 23 Trivalent Graphs, Snarks, and Boojums.