Presents a collection of visual challenges, riddles, and puzzles.

About the original 1000 PlayThinks,Will Shortz of The New York Times said it best: “The most wide-ranging, visually appealing, entertaining, gigantic collection of brainteasers since Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of Puzzles almost a century ago.” Inside The Big Book of Brain Games, you will find an obsessive collection of 1,000 challenges, puzzles, riddles, illusions—originals as well as must-do classics—it’s like salted peanuts for the brain. With jampacked pages and a full-color illustration for each entry, the book, opened anywhere, is a call to action. (And it’s guaranteed to make you smarter.) Twelve basic categories include Geometry, Patterns, Numbers, Logic and Probability, and Perception. An easy-to-read key at the top of each game ranks its difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10, while indices in the back cross-reference the puzzles. (You’ll find the answers back there, too.)

Colorful geometrical pentagors, composed of pentagons and triangles and dissected into pieces: Can you put the shapes together again to form a whole? A classic paradox about the nature of motion from a famous Greek mathematician: Can you see what’s wrong with it? Put on your thinking cap and prepare to give your math and logic abilities a workout, because these super-looking puzzles demand real brainpower. Solve a graphic problem that involves the calculation of a square root. Examine six linear processions of egg-carrying ants, and figure out which lines are “surprising” and which ones aren’t. Go step by step through a multihued grid and try to find 32 different configurations within. These puzzles are challenging, entertaining, and satisfying to unravel.

Treasury of 300 puzzles features 3D and chess puzzles, connections, dissections, foldings, geometrical and number puzzles, logic problems, matchstick puzzles, mazes, moving pieces, put-togethers, strimkos, sudoku, and visual and word puzzles.

A colorful square, dissected into four parts, with hinges marked in black. If you leave the blue piece fixed and swing the others around their hinges, a new shape will emerge. Can you guess just by looking what it will be? This is just one of the tricky geometrical gems that will make a puzzler’s mind work overtime. Try drawing a set of variously shaped polygons using only a compass and a ruler (no measuring allowed!), figuring out which of two sculptures is bigger (logic alone won’t give you the answer), and lots more.

'The whizz-kid making maths supercool. . . A brilliant book that takes everything we know (and fear) about maths out of the equation - starting with numbers' The Times 'A cheerful, chatty, and charming trip through the world of mathematics. . . Everyone should read this delightful book' Ian Stewart, author of Do Dice Play God? The only numbers in this book are the page numbers. The three main branches of abstract math - topology, analysis, and algebra - turn out to be surprisingly easy to grasp. Or at least, they are when our guide is a math prodigy. With forthright wit and warm charm, Milo Beckman upends the conventional approach to mathematics, inviting us to think creatively about shape and dimension, the infinite and the infinitesimal, symmetries, proofs, and all how all these concepts fit together. Why is there a million dollar prize for counting shapes? Is anything bigger than infinity? And how is the 'truth' of mathematics actually decided? A vivid and wholly original guide to the math that makes the world tick and the planets revolve, Math Without Numbers makes human and understandable the elevated and hypothetical, allowing us to clearly see abstract math for what it is: bizarre, beautiful, and head-scratchingly wonderful.

A collection of math and logic puzzles features number games, magic squares, tricks, problems with dominoes and dice, and cross sums, in addition to other intellectual teasers.

Perfect for sudoku fans—the rules for these 100 logic puzzles are simple, and the math is easy. But 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 Remember: Area = length × width Use spatial reasoning to find helpful relationships Whole numbers are all you need. You can always get the answer without using fractions! 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!

"A renowned puzzle master and game inventor presents 315 new and traditional puzzles. The Puzzle Universe is intended for general readers and devoted puzzlers. It is about the latent beauty of mathematics, its history, and the puzzles that have advanced and emerged from the science of numbers. It is full of challenging historical facts, thinking puzzles, paradoxes, illusions, and problem solving. There are 315 puzzles in this book. Extended captions explain in easy terms the value of the puzzles for mathematical and educational purposes, particularly in light of the findings of recent research. This historical and pedagogical dimension sets The Puzzle Universe apart from similar books. The puzzles appear in a dynamic layout for a visual experience that is Ivan Moscovich's trademark. There are ten chapters complete with answers. Icons show the challenge rating and the tools needed (pencil, scissors, ruler, and of course, brain) to solve the puzzle."--

Virtually a modern fitness studio for the brain, 150 diverse puzzles help to keep minds flexible and to boost mental stamina in logical and mathematical thinking. The challenges posed by this new training program are a fun way of finding a logical path through the puzzle labyrinth.