Los acertijos de Sam Loyd

by Sam Loyd

¿Quién dijo que las matemáticas eras áridas, aburridas, complicadas? Esta antología de acertijos creados por un maestro indiscutible en este arte es una continua invitación a pensar, deducir y divertirse. Sam Loyd dedicó buena parte de su vida a los acertijos matemáticos. Cuando murió, su hijo recopiló la obra de su padre en una monumental enciclopedia de acertijos, de la que Martin Gardner ha seleccionado los mejores. Loyd empezó como ajedrecista y creador de problemas de ajedrez, tema que en determinado momento dejó de interesarle y, tal como cuenta Gardner en el prólogo, «su atención se concentró en los acertijos matemáticos y en objetos promocionales novedosos, ideándolos con una gracia y una originalidad que nunca fueron superadas». Bienvenidos al fabuloso mundo de Sam loyd, a sus endiablados y divertidísimos problemas de álgebra, geometría y lógica.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction, Puzzles, Reference, Games

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Samuel Loyd (January 30, 1841 – April 10, 1911), born in Philadelphia and raised in New York, was an American chess player, chess composer, puzzle author, and recreational mathematician.

As a chess composer, he authored a number of chess problems, often with interesting themes. At his peak, Loyd was one of the best chess players in the US, and was ranked 15th in the world, according to chessmetrics.com.

He played in the strong Paris 1867 chess tournament (won by Ignatz von Kolisch) with little success, placing near the bottom of the field.

Following his death, his book Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles was published (1914) by his son. His son, named after his father, dropped the "Jr" from his name and started publishing reprints of his father's puzzles. Loyd (senior) was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame.

Loyd is widely acknowledged as one of America's great puzzle-writers and popularizers, often mentioned as the greatest—Martin Gardner called him "America's greatest puzzler", and The Strand in 1898 dubbed him "the prince of puzzlers". As a chess problemist, his composing style is distinguished by wit and humour.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not all that fond of this style of puzzle.

[Viki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the collection of old classic problems of one of the first authors in recreational math challenges. Some are very interesting up to these days. The way some problems are presented is a little confusing in my view. Math problem should be very clearly stated, avoiding any ambiguity in understanding its conditions, which is not the case in some problems in this book. Otherwise, great recreational math read

[Bert Huisman]

4 t12

[Julia]

(Christmas gift.)

[Lindsey Lubker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that has lots of mathematical puzzles. It has easy and tricky parts throughout the book.