The Original Area Mazes: 100 Addictive Puzzles to Solve with Simple Math―and Clever Logic!

by Naoki Inaba, Ryoichi Murakami, Alex Bellos (Introduction)

The rules are simple . . . The math is easy . . .The puzzles get harder and harder!

Once you match wits with area mazes, you’ll be hooked! Your quest is to navigate a network of rectangles to find a missing value.

Just
Originally invented for gifted students, area mazes ( menseki meiro ), have taken all of Japan by storm. Are you a sudoku fanatic? Do you play brain games to stay sharp? Did you love geometry . . . or would you like to finally show it who’s boss? Feed your brain some area mazes—they could be just what you’re craving!

Genres: Mathematics, Puzzles, Nonfiction, Reference, Education

160 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2017

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun puzzle. The reliance on whole numbers means you can use relations among them as well as geometry.

[Joseph Schrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just completed the last of the 100 puzzles in “The Original Area Mazes”. I enjoyed these puzzles more than any book of puzzles I’d ever before encountered. The puzzle difficulty goes from one-star all the way to five-star (more difficult) puzzles. Solutions (including explanations for the solutions) are given for all puzzles. I always solved the puzzles by using my own strategies – sometimes being less proficient strategies than what I found in the book’s solutions. These puzzles encourage a great deal of creativity.

Having a good sense of geometry is very helpful. Even though I’m tolerably competent in mathematics, I do not perform all so well in geometry. Some of the puzzles in this book were really tough for me. Nevertheless, by working a few puzzles on most days since I received the book, I solved the 100 puzzles in about 42 days. Most of the puzzles up to 4-or-5-stars were fairly easy. I often used some elementary (high school) algebra in order to solve certain puzzles, but pure geometrical manipulation and insight are simply indispensable for some of the puzzles.

I highly recommend this book for any puzzle lovers. I’ve done lots of Sudoku puzzles, but these puzzles were more interesting and more logically taxing than Sudoku is. These puzzles DEMAND logical thinking.

[Amim Sayyah · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب معماهای چارگوش ۱: ۱۰۰ معمای جذاب با ریاضیات ساده و منطق هوشمندانه (ویراست دوم)


بخش اول کتاب به معرفی قوانین حل این معماها می‌پردازد. سپس معماها را در پنج سطح دشواری متفاوت – از بسیار ساده تا بسیار چالش‌برانگیز – خواهید یافت و در بخش انتهای کتاب نیز حل تشریحی تمام معماها قرار دارد.

فراتر از محاسبات به این معماها نگاه کنید. نگرشی منطقی و کُل‌نگر داشته باشید. یافتن پاسخ بدون این‌که درگیر محاسبات پیچیده ریاضی شوید از خصوصیات بارز «معماهای چارگوش» است. اگرچه محدودیت سنی برای استفاده از این کتاب وجود ندارد و برای همه عاشقان معماهای ریاضی، قابل استفاده است اما به طور اخص این کتاب برای دوره دوم ابتدایی و دوره اول دبیرستان توصیه می‌شود.

تمامی معماهای این کتاب با دانستن تعریف «مساحت مستطیل» قابل انجام هستند و در هیچ کدام از معماهای مربوطه، نیازی به حل معادله یا استفاده از محاسبات پیچیده نیست. این کتاب تألیف طراح مشهور ژاپنی، نائوکی اینابا است. تمامی معماهای این کتاب با ریاضیات ساده و منطق صرف، قابل انجام هستند. معماهای چارگوش به طور ویژه به تقویت هوش ریاضی و منطقی مخاطب می‌پردازد و در عین حال تمرینی بسیار موثر برای پرورش خلاقیت و کسب مهارت‌های حل مسئله است. این معماها در حال حاضر به شکل گسترده‌ای در سرتاسر جهان برای مقاصد آموزشی، مورد استفاده قرار می‌گیرند.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

These were so fun! As a math person it took some getting used to - to focus ONLY on logic and the most basic principle of area equals width times height, and only using whole numbers. I really appreciated the gradual increase in difficulty for this reason, as it frequently built on strategies learned in earlier puzzles. I also appreciated the thorough explanations of each solution - sometimes I used a different strategy to come to the correct conclusion, but most of the time theirs was much more efficient ;-)

I've already ordered volume 2!

[Zenpvnk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than Sudoku.

[Dung Luong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished my first puzzle book ever!!!

I wish I had spent more time with this book initially. The further you go, the more ingenious the solutions are!

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seems simple enough… Not quite. But so much fun!

[Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

The puzzles are not very challenging, aside from the last 20 or so, but they are still fun and relaxing to solve.

[Dani Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this kind of puzzle is your thing, then this is excellent

[Nguyễn Vy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giải đố kiểu toán học, cũng khá là vui và thư giãn