Mathematical game
Mathematical games include many topics which are a part of recreational mathematics, but can also cover topics such as the mathematics of games, and playing games with mathematics.
Mathematical Games was the title of a long-running column on the subject by Martin Gardner in Scientific American. He inspired several new generations of mathematicians and scientists through his interest in mathematical recreations. Mathematical Games was succeeded by Metamagical Themas, a similarly distinguished but shorter-running column by Douglas Hofstadter.
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2 Playing games with mathematics 3 Specific mathematical games 4 External links and references |
Mathematics of games
This can be a more serious subject than the name belies. It can include the statistical analysis of card games such as Poker, Bridge or Ambition to understand and improve play techniques.
- Game theory has wide social and military applications for tactical and strategic planning.
- Conway's combinatorial game theory and surreal numbers
Playing games with mathematics
The foremost popularizers of recreational mathematics in recent years have been
Other figures in recreational mathematics history have included:Specific mathematical games
- Dots and boxes
- Eight queens puzzle
- Four fours
- Hex
- Hexaflexagons
- Life
- Knight's Tour
- Nim
- Penrose dominoes
- Prisoner's dilemma
- Rhythmomachy
- Rubik's Cube
- Soma cube
- Sprouts
- Sim
- Squaring the square
- Tangram
- Topo
- Tower of Hanoi
- Wire-and-string puzzles (knot theory, topology)
Other games and pastimes of non-trivial mathematical interest:
See also:External links and references
- Journal of Recreational Mathematics
- http://www.mathpuzzle.com/ by Ed Pegg, Jr.
- The Unreasonable Utility of Recreational Mathematics by David Singmaster
- Profile of John Conway
- Bibliography: http://bruichladdich.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/mathrecsFolder/books.html
- Mathematical Games from Madras College, St Andrews
- Malba Tahan: The Man Who Counted
