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Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities
School maths is not the interesting part. The real fun is elsewhere. Like a magpie, Ian Stewart has collected the most enlightening, entertaining and vexing 'curiosities' of maths over the years... Now, the private collection is displayed in his cabinet.There are some hidden gems of logic, geometry and probability -- like how to extract a cherry from a cocktail glass (harder than you think), a pop up dodecahedron, the real reason why you can't divide anything by zero and some tips for making money by proving the obvious. Scattered among these are keys to unlocking the mysteries of Fermat's last theorem, the Poincaré Conjecture, chaos theory, and the P/NP problem for which a million dollar prize is on offer. There are beguiling secrets about familiar names like Pythagoras or prime numbers, as well as anecdotes about great mathematicians. Pull out the drawers of the Professor's cabinet and who knows what could happen...
323 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
99 people are currently reading
2470 people want to read
About the author
Ian Stewart
269 books760 followersIan Nicholas Stewart is an Emeritus Professor and Digital Media Fellow in the Mathematics Department at Warwick University, with special responsibility for public awareness of mathematics and science. He is best known for his popular science writing on mathematical themes.
--from the author's website
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.
--from the author's website
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
October 2, 2025
What a disappointment after FLATTERLAND!
Professor Stewart seemed to have the devil's own time finding a balance that would appeal to fans of popular mathematics. Much of his CABINET OF MATHEMATICAL CURIOSITIES is positively pedestrian and, frankly, quite boring - riddles we've all heard before; high school geometry; combinatorial curiosities such as the number of ways to shuffle a pack of cards or the number of different sudoku puzzles that exist; school age party tricks based on nothing fancier than public school arithmetic; and, for goodness' sake, a listing of constants such as e, √2 or pi to 50 decimal places ... my, my and ho hum!
At the other end of the scale, Stewart included complex summary essays on cutting edge mathematical topics as advanced and esoteric as the Riemann Hypothesis, fractional dimensions, Zeta functions, the Goldbach conjecture and so on. I don't think of myself as mathematically challenged by any means but (and this is strictly my opinion) I believe many of these essays are pitched at a level that would bewilder a young bright-eyed mathematician fresh off the earning of an undergraduate degree.
It was the merest handful of essays that found that brilliant middle ground that challenged, entertained and educated - Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem; the Poincaré Conjecture; a discussion of Hilbert's Hotel and the cardinality of infinities put forward by Cantor; Bessel functions and the differences in the "quality" or "timbre" of the sounds generated by the shape of a drum as opposed to merely its pitch. But these successes were precious few and far between.
High expectations dashed on the shores of mediocrity. Not recommended!
Paul Weiss
Professor Stewart seemed to have the devil's own time finding a balance that would appeal to fans of popular mathematics. Much of his CABINET OF MATHEMATICAL CURIOSITIES is positively pedestrian and, frankly, quite boring - riddles we've all heard before; high school geometry; combinatorial curiosities such as the number of ways to shuffle a pack of cards or the number of different sudoku puzzles that exist; school age party tricks based on nothing fancier than public school arithmetic; and, for goodness' sake, a listing of constants such as e, √2 or pi to 50 decimal places ... my, my and ho hum!
At the other end of the scale, Stewart included complex summary essays on cutting edge mathematical topics as advanced and esoteric as the Riemann Hypothesis, fractional dimensions, Zeta functions, the Goldbach conjecture and so on. I don't think of myself as mathematically challenged by any means but (and this is strictly my opinion) I believe many of these essays are pitched at a level that would bewilder a young bright-eyed mathematician fresh off the earning of an undergraduate degree.
It was the merest handful of essays that found that brilliant middle ground that challenged, entertained and educated - Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem; the Poincaré Conjecture; a discussion of Hilbert's Hotel and the cardinality of infinities put forward by Cantor; Bessel functions and the differences in the "quality" or "timbre" of the sounds generated by the shape of a drum as opposed to merely its pitch. But these successes were precious few and far between.
High expectations dashed on the shores of mediocrity. Not recommended!
Paul Weiss
June 4, 2012
Nice booklet about many famous and less famous mathematical problems. Many of the puzzles are rather complicated, so it takes some time to fully grasp them in order to be able to appreciate the solution. This is not a book you easily read through from start to finish. It is more something to have on you shelf, picking it up occasionally to enjoy one or two discusions and then letting it rest for a while.
As an introdution to maths for the non-mathematician, Stewart's book is too diverse and doesn't follow a chronological story. A better overview of math's history would be Mathematics: The Science of Patterns.
As an introdution to maths for the non-mathematician, Stewart's book is too diverse and doesn't follow a chronological story. A better overview of math's history would be Mathematics: The Science of Patterns.
October 9, 2014
This is the second review of a trilogy, I'm reading in entirely the wrong order (book 3, then 1 here, and 2 to follow), so for me, this book is a predecessor to Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries. The format is very similar - a collection of factoids, logical puzzles, mathematical expositions and more to entertain any recreational maths enthusiast. I think it works significantly better in this first book of the series because, to be honest, by volume 3 there is probably a bit of barrel scraping going on. Here the topics are fresh and fun.
There is arguably something for everyone here, which inversely means that there are probably some bits, depending on your mathematical knowledge and interests, that you will either find too trivial or too heavy going. But the format makes it easy to skip through to the next. I personally most enjoy the logic problems (though a small black mark for featuring a near-identical "moving the cups" problem to one in the third book) and, much to my surprise, the geometry, which I suppose took me back to a more innocent time. There were inevitably some entries where there was a strong feeling of 'so what?', leaving the reader suspecting that mathematicians need to get a life. And at least one where I think the answer is wrong, if you apply the same logic as applied in an earlier tricksy question. (It's the one about pigs and umbrellas, if you must know.)
Funnily, what works least well are the bits that are most like a conventional popular maths book, that describe famous mathematical problems and their context, such as the four colour problem and Fermat's last theorem. The entries for these are rather longer than the rest, but obviously much shorter than, say, Simon Singh's brilliant book on Fermat. That means that you get concentrated fact, but none of the interesting detail that makes a popular science or maths book appealing. For me these sections just don't work and I largely skipped them.
But - and that's the joy of the format - it really doesn't matter. Because in a few pages there will be something else, and something else, and something else again to entertain and tickle the brain cells. It made me think, reminded me of some old favourite problems and puzzles, introduced plenty of new ones and entertained. What more can you ask from maths?
There is arguably something for everyone here, which inversely means that there are probably some bits, depending on your mathematical knowledge and interests, that you will either find too trivial or too heavy going. But the format makes it easy to skip through to the next. I personally most enjoy the logic problems (though a small black mark for featuring a near-identical "moving the cups" problem to one in the third book) and, much to my surprise, the geometry, which I suppose took me back to a more innocent time. There were inevitably some entries where there was a strong feeling of 'so what?', leaving the reader suspecting that mathematicians need to get a life. And at least one where I think the answer is wrong, if you apply the same logic as applied in an earlier tricksy question. (It's the one about pigs and umbrellas, if you must know.)
Funnily, what works least well are the bits that are most like a conventional popular maths book, that describe famous mathematical problems and their context, such as the four colour problem and Fermat's last theorem. The entries for these are rather longer than the rest, but obviously much shorter than, say, Simon Singh's brilliant book on Fermat. That means that you get concentrated fact, but none of the interesting detail that makes a popular science or maths book appealing. For me these sections just don't work and I largely skipped them.
But - and that's the joy of the format - it really doesn't matter. Because in a few pages there will be something else, and something else, and something else again to entertain and tickle the brain cells. It made me think, reminded me of some old favourite problems and puzzles, introduced plenty of new ones and entertained. What more can you ask from maths?
March 25, 2020
Ένα βιβλίο για...μαθηματικούς και μάλιστα για τους λάτρεις της θεωρίας αριθμών, για αυτούς που ψάχνουν μαθηματικές αποδείξεις για όχι και τόσο καθημερινούς γρίφους, σίγουρα στις 300+ σελίδες θα βρεις αρκετά χρήσιμα κείμενα, αλλά από τα μέσα του βιβλίου το ...έργο εξειδικεύεται και προσπερνάς τις σκηνές ή το διαβάζεις στην τριπλάσια ταχύτητα. Αυτό και μόνο με ωθεί στα 2 αστέρια. Τουλάχιστον έμαθα έναν πρακτικό τρόπο για να μετράω το ύψος ενός δέντρου αν και θα προτιμούσα να κάτσω κάτω από τη σκιά του και να ξαναδιαβάσω ένα άλλο βιβλίο του, τις επιστολές σε μια νεαρή μαθηματικό!
December 19, 2018
Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities, Ian Stewart, 2009, ISBN 9780465013029, text pp. 1–249; solutions pp. 251–310.
A lifetime’s collection of mathematical curiosities: properties of whole numbers, geometry, topology, logic. Also defines the big unsolved problems in mathematics for which prizes have been offered (pp. 126–129); tells us of recent (and ancient) discoveries in math. A wealth of content in a short book. Some highlights:
Pi, pp. 23–26, 39–40, 197, 208–211, 217
355/113 is good to 6 places. p. 23
Mnemonic in French and English, p. 39–40,
Several formulas for pi, pp. 208–211, 217
e, base of natural logarithm, pp. 172–173, 197
Pythagorus, pp. 46–49. b. 569 BCE on Samos. Probably met Thales of Miletus; Pythagorus attended lectures by Anaximander, student of Thales.
Pythagorean Triples, pp. 58–59, 61, 71
You know the 3-4-5 and 5-12-13 right triangles—but what other whole numbers work in Pythagorus’s theorem? Here’s the answer! It’s called Diophantus’s Rule:
For any two integers, n > m
Take:
a = n² − m²
b = 2nm
c = n² + m²
Then
a² + b² = c²
That is,
(n² − m²)² + (2nm)² = (n² + m²)²
For example:
(n, m) a–b–c
(2, 1) 3–4–5
(3, 2) 5–12–13
(4, 1) 15–8–17
(4, 3) 7–24–25
(5, 4) 9–40–41
(5, 2) 21–20–29
(6, 1) 35–12–37
Fermat’s Last Theorem, pp. 50–58
Leonhard Euler, pp. 43–44
Carl Friedrich Gauss, pp. 146–149
Regular polyhedrons: faces plus vertices = edges + 2, pp. 174–179
Pick’s Theorem: area of a lattice polygon = ½ number of boundary points + number of interior points minus 1, pp. 125–126
Expanding universe, pp. 95–96
Golden number phi: phi minus 1 = 1/phi, pp. 96–98, 197
Fibonacci numbers, pp. 98–102
Plastic number, pp. 103–104
When will my MP3 player repeat? pp. 131–134
The game of life, pp. 223–228 but see ERRATA below.
Goldbach Conjecture: ways a number can be expressed as sum of two primes, pp. 154–155
Which slice of spherical loaf has most crust? All are same, if slices equal thickness. Means in making a flat map of the globe, a projection onto a cylinder, then rolled out, is an equal-area projection, if the z-axis of the cylinder is preserved as linear. Pp. 246, 309.
Different sizes of infinities: Hilbert’s Hotel, pp. 157–161
Most likely digit 106–109
Cutting a Mobius strip: pp. 111–113
Fake coin puzzle: Given 12 coins, 1 of which is heavy or light, find which one is wrong and whether heavy or light, in just 3 weighings of coins vs. coins on an unmarked 2-pan balance. pp. 32–35
Four-color theorem, pp. 10–16. Describes how Wolfgang Haken and Kenneth Appel solved it in 1976.
Cute arithmetic: pp. 182–183
(1/2)×(5/4) = 15/24
(1/4)×(8/5) = 18/45
(1/6)×(4/3) = 14/63
(1/6)×(6/4) = 16/64
(1/9)×(9/5) = 19/95
(2/6)×(6/5) = 26/65
(4/9)×(9/8) = 49/98
Constant bore, pp. 49–50, 264–266
A solid metal sphere with cylindrical hole bored through the center, if the resulting bored sphere is of a given height, say 1 meter, weighs the same regardless of the original diameter of the sphere: whether the hole is vanishingly small or as large as you like.
Close packing, p. 305
Square wheel pp. 84–85
Marital Mistrust puzzle, pp. 86–87, 273: a harder version of the “get the goose, grain, and fox across the river without leaving goose alone with grain or fox” puzzle.
Opposition (parity of number of moves) in chess, pp. 214–215
Prof. Stewart is great at making up names:
Lord Elpus
ERRATA
In Game of Life section, p. 225, diagram 10, if center square is (0, 0) then only the squares at coordinates 2 and 3 along each axis should have dots. And diagram 11 should be empty.
P. 226, the right traffic light does not produce the left one. The dot 2 squares from the center along each axis vanishes. And the next diagram should be empty.
P. 293: squares are supposed to be all different. The first two in top left are the same.
Permalink:
https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/Tom...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Quiz:
https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work...
A lifetime’s collection of mathematical curiosities: properties of whole numbers, geometry, topology, logic. Also defines the big unsolved problems in mathematics for which prizes have been offered (pp. 126–129); tells us of recent (and ancient) discoveries in math. A wealth of content in a short book. Some highlights:
Pi, pp. 23–26, 39–40, 197, 208–211, 217
355/113 is good to 6 places. p. 23
Mnemonic in French and English, p. 39–40,
Several formulas for pi, pp. 208–211, 217
e, base of natural logarithm, pp. 172–173, 197
Pythagorus, pp. 46–49. b. 569 BCE on Samos. Probably met Thales of Miletus; Pythagorus attended lectures by Anaximander, student of Thales.
Pythagorean Triples, pp. 58–59, 61, 71
You know the 3-4-5 and 5-12-13 right triangles—but what other whole numbers work in Pythagorus’s theorem? Here’s the answer! It’s called Diophantus’s Rule:
For any two integers, n > m
Take:
a = n² − m²
b = 2nm
c = n² + m²
Then
a² + b² = c²
That is,
(n² − m²)² + (2nm)² = (n² + m²)²
For example:
(n, m) a–b–c
(2, 1) 3–4–5
(3, 2) 5–12–13
(4, 1) 15–8–17
(4, 3) 7–24–25
(5, 4) 9–40–41
(5, 2) 21–20–29
(6, 1) 35–12–37
Fermat’s Last Theorem, pp. 50–58
Leonhard Euler, pp. 43–44
Carl Friedrich Gauss, pp. 146–149
Regular polyhedrons: faces plus vertices = edges + 2, pp. 174–179
Pick’s Theorem: area of a lattice polygon = ½ number of boundary points + number of interior points minus 1, pp. 125–126
Expanding universe, pp. 95–96
Golden number phi: phi minus 1 = 1/phi, pp. 96–98, 197
Fibonacci numbers, pp. 98–102
Plastic number, pp. 103–104
When will my MP3 player repeat? pp. 131–134
The game of life, pp. 223–228 but see ERRATA below.
Goldbach Conjecture: ways a number can be expressed as sum of two primes, pp. 154–155
Which slice of spherical loaf has most crust? All are same, if slices equal thickness. Means in making a flat map of the globe, a projection onto a cylinder, then rolled out, is an equal-area projection, if the z-axis of the cylinder is preserved as linear. Pp. 246, 309.
Different sizes of infinities: Hilbert’s Hotel, pp. 157–161
Most likely digit 106–109
Cutting a Mobius strip: pp. 111–113
Fake coin puzzle: Given 12 coins, 1 of which is heavy or light, find which one is wrong and whether heavy or light, in just 3 weighings of coins vs. coins on an unmarked 2-pan balance. pp. 32–35
Four-color theorem, pp. 10–16. Describes how Wolfgang Haken and Kenneth Appel solved it in 1976.
Cute arithmetic: pp. 182–183
(1/2)×(5/4) = 15/24
(1/4)×(8/5) = 18/45
(1/6)×(4/3) = 14/63
(1/6)×(6/4) = 16/64
(1/9)×(9/5) = 19/95
(2/6)×(6/5) = 26/65
(4/9)×(9/8) = 49/98
Constant bore, pp. 49–50, 264–266
A solid metal sphere with cylindrical hole bored through the center, if the resulting bored sphere is of a given height, say 1 meter, weighs the same regardless of the original diameter of the sphere: whether the hole is vanishingly small or as large as you like.
Close packing, p. 305
Square wheel pp. 84–85
Marital Mistrust puzzle, pp. 86–87, 273: a harder version of the “get the goose, grain, and fox across the river without leaving goose alone with grain or fox” puzzle.
Opposition (parity of number of moves) in chess, pp. 214–215
Prof. Stewart is great at making up names:
Lord Elpus
ERRATA
In Game of Life section, p. 225, diagram 10, if center square is (0, 0) then only the squares at coordinates 2 and 3 along each axis should have dots. And diagram 11 should be empty.
P. 226, the right traffic light does not produce the left one. The dot 2 squares from the center along each axis vanishes. And the next diagram should be empty.
P. 293: squares are supposed to be all different. The first two in top left are the same.
Permalink:
https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/Tom...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Quiz:
https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work...
August 11, 2020
'The book has some serious problems' would be a compliment to this book! Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities lives up to its expectations, if not exceeds it by a margin. This is basically a popular Math book by popular science author Professor Ian Stewart. But the gamut of topics (or "curiosities" touched upon in this book is impressive. Many curiosities come across as silly, a few are captivating, a bunch of them are explorative, but I'm afraid none was original to my dismay, although I probably should have guessed it before I picked up the book.
If you're already an expert at knowing interesting and varied topics in Math and logic, this book might just mildly interest you. Yet, there are some topics that are explained so well they give a new perspective to the concept. The one that impressed me the most is Euler's Equation (widely regarded as the most beautiful equation in all of Math) - e ^ (i*pi) = -1. I had come across that equation thousands of times, but the author's way of "realizing" the equation using a circle and tangents at right angles was truly marvelous. Many more such explanations come to my mind - Langton's Ant, the elaborate explanation of Poincare Conjecture, the puzzle of division into 17 entities, the nature and idea of "pi", realistic meaning of squaring a circle, Fermat's Last Equation etc.
I must admit that there are some puzzles in the book that are well known, like the river crossing puzzle, coin swaps, pour glasses, weighing machines etc. But the point is if you're compiling a list of mathematical curiosities of various kinds for a heterogeneous audience, I guess those ought to get a place, and so the author has done a good job with that. There were some news as well, like the patented primes, simple yet brilliant "Tap-an-Animal" game etc that gave me new ideas to create a few more puzzles.
Overall, while I did enjoy reading the book, a large portion of it was "re-visiting" what I had already enjoyed in my teens. The book is not equation-heavy and caters mostly to general audience, so if you're like me that loves equations and proofs, the book won't impress you dearly but you'd still have a fun ride.
If you're already an expert at knowing interesting and varied topics in Math and logic, this book might just mildly interest you. Yet, there are some topics that are explained so well they give a new perspective to the concept. The one that impressed me the most is Euler's Equation (widely regarded as the most beautiful equation in all of Math) - e ^ (i*pi) = -1. I had come across that equation thousands of times, but the author's way of "realizing" the equation using a circle and tangents at right angles was truly marvelous. Many more such explanations come to my mind - Langton's Ant, the elaborate explanation of Poincare Conjecture, the puzzle of division into 17 entities, the nature and idea of "pi", realistic meaning of squaring a circle, Fermat's Last Equation etc.
I must admit that there are some puzzles in the book that are well known, like the river crossing puzzle, coin swaps, pour glasses, weighing machines etc. But the point is if you're compiling a list of mathematical curiosities of various kinds for a heterogeneous audience, I guess those ought to get a place, and so the author has done a good job with that. There were some news as well, like the patented primes, simple yet brilliant "Tap-an-Animal" game etc that gave me new ideas to create a few more puzzles.
Overall, while I did enjoy reading the book, a large portion of it was "re-visiting" what I had already enjoyed in my teens. The book is not equation-heavy and caters mostly to general audience, so if you're like me that loves equations and proofs, the book won't impress you dearly but you'd still have a fun ride.
April 19, 2018
A Fun book with lots to think about(if you can understand it)
December 5, 2020
A collection of puzzles and mathematical snippets, some old and familiar, and few going deep.
January 18, 2023
Einwirklich tolles Buch! Selbst für Nicht-Mathematiker:innen ist es super geschrieben und verständlich. Und sehr, sehr witzig :)
August 30, 2011
Ian Stewart is one of the famous names in popular mathematics, along with Douglas Hofstadter and Martin Gardner. He also wrote Flatterland, one of the better sequels written for Flatland.
This book is about 40% math history, 30% classic mind puzzles, and 30% new (to me) brain benders. It's a great collection for that small percentage of people that would choose to read math for fun.
This book is about 40% math history, 30% classic mind puzzles, and 30% new (to me) brain benders. It's a great collection for that small percentage of people that would choose to read math for fun.
February 28, 2025
è un libro divertente, se si ama la matematica, ma per il mio gusto c'è troppo da fare (esercizi, problemi o quesiti) e troppo poco da leggere. inoltre devo ammettere che intorno alla pagina 200 mi sono scontrata con i limiti delle mie conoscenze, che arrivano al quint'anno del liceo scientifico (di 30 anni fa). tuttavia mi ha fatto piacere ritrovare un problema con il quale mi ero cimentata (con successo) molti anni fa (a constant bore, pag.49) e la soluzione geometrica del classico indovinello della capra, il cavolo e il lupo (river crossing, pag. 20), e mi ha divertito scoprire che tra i matematici illustri (per motivi diversi dalla matematica) ci sono alberto fujimori, art garfunkel, teri hatcher, michael jordan, carole king e lev trotsky.
February 5, 2013
Ian Stewart's popular math books are some of my favorite books of all time, and this installment did not disappoint. If you enjoy interesting puzzles, dorky humor, and mathematical trivia, you will probably like this book as much as I did. There are several errors, though, including in the solutions guide, but they are generally easy to spot. Some of the explanations were a little too brief, and one or two of the puzzle solutions were basically rewordings of "because it's obvious," but there are many links given to further information for the curious.
July 20, 2010
A fun little popular math book. A bit uneven (most of his explanations were outstanding, but some left me scratching my head) but overall well worth reading, especially for secondary school math teachers. Some of the math puzzles found inside were excellent, and I'm looking forward to sharing them with my students.
January 30, 2013
Lots of mathematical snippets, ranging from the odd joke to detailed proofs of interesting theorems. I suppose this means that there is something for everyone, but it also means that the range is too wide for most. A couple of errors slightly take the gloss off, but nevertheless this makes for an interesting and informative book to dip into.
January 28, 2017
Professor Stewart speaks of a number of mathematical curiosities and puzzles with solutions. Among them are the Monty Hall Problem, the Riemann Hypothesis and other things that are interesting. While it is heavy on math, some of the problems only require simple logic to figure out. Just a disclaimer, it doesn't solve the Riemann Hypothesis, it only discusses it.
May 27, 2011
Great fun! Had a blast reading it!
March 15, 2015
The equal of anything by Martin Gardner, who is the gold standard in such matters. There were one or two things I hadn't met before. Excellent.
August 20, 2025
I met Ian Stewart’s Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities in 2013, and it felt like stumbling into the classroom I had always wished for but never had.
By then, my long truce with mathematics had calcified into quiet dislike—I carried the scars of rote formulas, of teachers who made numbers seem like locked doors. Yet Stewart, in this delightful compendium of puzzles, paradoxes, and playful explanations, opened a window where I had only seen walls.
The book is structured like a cabinet of wonders, each chapter a new drawer filled with surprises: mind-bending riddles, quirky anecdotes from mathematical history, clever tricks that turn abstraction into amusement. Instead of intimidating with jargon, Stewart makes the subject inviting, mischievous even.
Reading him, I often caught myself smiling at things I once would have dismissed as “too difficult”. He has a knack for reminding readers that mathematics is not only about precision but also about curiosity, storytelling, and joy.
What stayed with me most was the tone—Stewart writes like a genial tutor who believes his student can understand anything, given the right key. That tone alone softened years of resistance. For the first time, I wished I had learnt math under someone like him: patient, witty, and capable of turning fear into fascination.
In retrospect, the book did not just entertain me; it gently rewired how I thought of mathematics. It was less about conquering equations and more about learning to play with ideas.
In 2013, I didn’t just read Stewart—I finally felt mathematics wink back at me.
By then, my long truce with mathematics had calcified into quiet dislike—I carried the scars of rote formulas, of teachers who made numbers seem like locked doors. Yet Stewart, in this delightful compendium of puzzles, paradoxes, and playful explanations, opened a window where I had only seen walls.
The book is structured like a cabinet of wonders, each chapter a new drawer filled with surprises: mind-bending riddles, quirky anecdotes from mathematical history, clever tricks that turn abstraction into amusement. Instead of intimidating with jargon, Stewart makes the subject inviting, mischievous even.
Reading him, I often caught myself smiling at things I once would have dismissed as “too difficult”. He has a knack for reminding readers that mathematics is not only about precision but also about curiosity, storytelling, and joy.
What stayed with me most was the tone—Stewart writes like a genial tutor who believes his student can understand anything, given the right key. That tone alone softened years of resistance. For the first time, I wished I had learnt math under someone like him: patient, witty, and capable of turning fear into fascination.
In retrospect, the book did not just entertain me; it gently rewired how I thought of mathematics. It was less about conquering equations and more about learning to play with ideas.
In 2013, I didn’t just read Stewart—I finally felt mathematics wink back at me.
November 11, 2020
The book is focused on an heterogeneous audience, this is not a history of mathematics, andit doesn't have an chronological order or by topic, it is only a collection of brief gems in order to make an enjoyable approachment to maths.
Mathematical jokes, puzzles (with solution at the end of the book), curious stories... here you have a lot of maths in many ways, and related to many parts of this science. Some of them are widely known, others are not so, and they are very different in difficulty and perspective. But all of them are worthy, it is an excellent selection and this is a very agile and pleasant reading.
Mathematical jokes, puzzles (with solution at the end of the book), curious stories... here you have a lot of maths in many ways, and related to many parts of this science. Some of them are widely known, others are not so, and they are very different in difficulty and perspective. But all of them are worthy, it is an excellent selection and this is a very agile and pleasant reading.
January 17, 2019
Mathematics is such a fascinating field of science for me, I studied maths up to college level. This books is full of interesting proofs of theorems, odd jokes and plenty of puzzles. This book is split into two sections; the “question” section which outlines the puzzle or the theorem and the “answer” section will give you the solution to the puzzle or more details about the theorem. This book is a good read, but, it is written for someone who has more advanced mathematical knowledge, as some of the finer details in this book were lost on me.
January 30, 2019
Like all of Ian Stewart's books, this is an excellent and very informative text for the mathematically inclined. It is essentially a compendium of mathematical puzzles, interesting theorems, obscure facts and trivia. It is not a very easy book to read and will take some time to read properly - on some days, I was stumped by one of the puzzles and kept part of the day thinking about a solution; and on some days I was simply amazed by something I learned from the book and had to go read more about it online.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in math.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in math.
June 7, 2017
I don't know if this book knows what it wants to be. Too little of anything to really chew on, too many abrupt shifts to allow the mind to take anything in fully. You'd do better to read something else.
November 18, 2020
A book with a number of mathematical puzzles and some major unresolved issues. A bit disappointing as the puzzles are quite straightforward whilst the unresolved issues are discussed only cursorily, with references to Wolfram or some other websites.
January 25, 2019
Lettura da bagno per matematici.
March 21, 2019
Lots of intriguing gems, with a few puzzles and jokes along the way.
March 3, 2022
It was interesting. Worth the read.
October 20, 2022
Nieironicznie calkiem calkiem. Kocham dowcipy matematyczne
November 15, 2010
Ultimamente Ian Stewart sembra voler superare il nostro Piergiorgio Odifreddi quanto a prolificità. Devo però dire che questa sua ultima fatica è davvero apprezzabile. Dai faldoni del professor Stewart è uscito fuori un libro che è un pot-pourri matematico, dai problemini classici alle brevi digressioni sui matematici e sui problemi della matematica: dalle barzellette matematiche alle digressioni tipo la "matematica light" all'interno del mio blog.
Il risultato è sorprendentemente buono, forse anche perché stavolta Stewart se è limitato nei giochi di parole o forse perché sono stato più attento alla matematica che alle parole. La scelta di parlare di tutto, purché sia matematica, è secondo me vincente - naturalmente per chi la matematica l'apprezza - perché dà una inaspettata varietà. Vale insomma la pena di leggerselo, anche per chi come me conosce già la maggior parte del materiale.
Il risultato è sorprendentemente buono, forse anche perché stavolta Stewart se è limitato nei giochi di parole o forse perché sono stato più attento alla matematica che alle parole. La scelta di parlare di tutto, purché sia matematica, è secondo me vincente - naturalmente per chi la matematica l'apprezza - perché dà una inaspettata varietà. Vale insomma la pena di leggerselo, anche per chi come me conosce già la maggior parte del materiale.
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