Received: from WILMA.BBN.COM (TCP 20026200730) by AI.AI.MIT.EDU 10 Nov 87 12:55:36 EST Date: Tue, 10 Nov 87 12:51:48 EST From: Bernie Cosell To: cube-lovers@AI.AI.MIT.EDU cc: alatto@WILMA.BBN.COM, math@WILMA.BBN.COM, jr@WILMA.BBN.COM Subject: New "Recreations in Math" editions Oxford U Press continues to produce entries in their "Recreations in Mathematics" series. I got #s 1 & 2 last year I just got vol 4. I've never seen vol 3. To review, #1 was "Mathematical byways ..." by Hugh ApSimon. I thought it was BORING, but it did discuss one thing I've never seen: *how* you set up a problem so it is both interesting and solvable. He runs through starting with some idea for a puzzle (something like the "you put an X foot ladder up against a wall and it just touches a box that is Y feet on a side, what's inside the box?") and gives the "composer's problem" related to that topic: how to get the problem set up. Interesting, sort of, but overall pretty boring stuff (especially since they are for the most part old, stuffy, dull problems). #2: Ins and Outs of Peg Solitaire. Really quite definitive reference to the jump-the-pegs-and-leave-one-in-the-middle puzzle. I can't remember where, but I've actually seen most of that material before. Maybe Mathematics magazine, or JRM. But in any event, this is a great book if you're at all interested in this kind of problem. #3: Rubik's Cubic Compendium, by Rubik, et al. I've *never* seen this anywhere. I'd love to get/have/see a copy. If any of you have a lead to this guy, please let me know. #4 Sliding Piece Puzzles (Hordern). I just picked this up at the Harvard Coop today. Not much theory on either the design or solution of this kind of puzzle. Just page after page of example puzzles. This is more of a catalog than a math book. One cute touch: there is a pocket inside the back cover with push-out paper "shapes" I guess that there are enough miscellaneous shapes on the card (about 2"x4") so that you can piece together a large number of the puzzles described in the book. My first impressions are that this book will be a definite "Ho Hum". /Bernie\