Amusements in Mathematics

by Henry Ernest Dudeney

Amusements in Mathematics, published in 1917, collects more than four hundred puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney, the English puzzle columnist who had spent decades setting them in the Strand and other magazines. They are grouped by kind: arithmetical and algebraical problems about money, ages, clocks, speeds and digits; geometrical puzzles of dissection and the famous haberdasher's problem of cutting an equilateral triangle into four pieces that make a square; points and lines, moving counters, unicursal and route problems, combinations and groupings, chessboard puzzles, magic squares, mazes, and the problems of the crossing of rivers. Full solutions follow. Dudeney wrote with wit and no fuss, and many of his inventions have become standard. It is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, with the first chapter free.