359 Mathematical Recreations (Dover Recreational Math)

Our favorite puzzle book. Lots of puzzles to keep you thinking. Gets you to think outside the box! Our family loves to read through one of the puzzles and then let it simmer for a few days to see who can come up with a solution. Many of the puzzles are tricky word problems, mixed with excellent logic problems. Great book.

I was really looking forward to getting this puzzle book. Although the puzzles look quite challenging, I am dissapointed with the qulity of the printing and that there are too many puzzles squeezed onto each page.
Still enjoying it, but it could have had a much better layout

My daughter loves logic problems and I was trying to find some logic puzzle books after she requested them for Christmas. This book came highly recommended from many people. When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice compact, detailed logic puzzle book! She is going to love this one!

Really hard puzzles. There are a lot of puzzles inside this book which is a plus for this book but I thought the puzzles were hard for a typical person. Perhaps if you like to think a lot or like challenging puzzles this would be a great book for you but I was looking more for a book that would be relaxing to do. Not too easy and not too hard- something to do while watching television and this book did not fit the bill.

If I have to recommend just one mathematics book for a child in the upper elementary grades, this is the one. It was my own introduction to mathematics some time during the last millennium (from a Chinese translation), and it continues to inspire me even
after my retirement from the university as a full professor in mathematics.

Really hard puzzles. There are a lot of puzzles inside this book which is a plus for this book but I thought the puzzles were hard for a typical person. Perhaps if you like to think a lot or like challenging puzzles this would be a great book for you but I was looking more for a book that would be relaxing to do. Not too easy and not too hard- something to do while watching television and this book did not fit the bill.

If I have to recommend just one mathematics book for a child in the upper elementary grades, this is the one. It was my own introduction to mathematics some time during the last millennium (from a Chinese translation), and it continues to inspire me even
after my retirement from the university as a full professor in mathematics.

It's clearly the work of a brilliant mathematician, and excellent for advanced thinkers. While some of the easier puzzles are suitable for us ordinary mortals, most of the puzzles are exceptionally challenging.

I found these puzzles difficult. Wish they were better categorized for designated ages. I used 1 or 2 in a high school classroom for advanced math students. They found them enjoyably challenging but they're not for the average student who doesn't care for Thisbe kind of puzzle.

Fun puzzles. Really math heavy and pretty difficult. For an easier alternative, I'd check out My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles (Dover Recreational Math).

Very fun! I really enjoy this in my downtime during work or while on the bus or train, it has become a bit of a past-time for me, so it was a great buy. Also, when I originally purchased this item, it was dropped off on my apartment doorstep and subsequently stolen, gave a call to the store and they were kind enough to send me a new book, free of charge, that was delivered to my mail box! Great :)

Officially, I am addicted to Moscow Puzzles. I think these brain teasers really tested my old elementary through grade school knowledge. My brother and I had a lot of fun trying to solve these. They brought me back to my childhood. If you like thought exercises and IQ tests, you will enjoy these. They have a variety of difficulty levels. There are an assortment of puzzles to choose from. I think if you like whimsical puzzles, you will enjoy these. They were written for children but have clever math implications. The book is inexpensive for the quality and number of puzzles available. You have over 200+ of puzzles.

Excellent collection of math puzzles not requiring advanced math - A book for anyone and everyone

With and outstanding collection of 359 mathematical recreations and being lavishly illustrated with more than 400 diagrams and sketches, this book will certainly become a treasure in the personal library of anyone that enjoys solving puzzles.

It's a mammoth puzzle collection, compare with most math teasers and puzzles book available. But what is important is not the quantity, but the quality and charm of the problems presented.

The book is divided in fifteen chapters, as shown:

- Amusing problems.

- Difficult problems.

- Geometry with matches.

- Measure seven times before you cut.

- Skill will find its application everywhere.

- Dominoes and dice.

- Properties of nine.

- With algebra and without it.

- Mathematics with almost no calculations.

- Mathematical games and tricks.

- Divisibility.

- Cross sums and magic squares.

- Numbers curious and serious.

- Numbers ancient but eternally young.

- Solutions.

Everyone will find the type of problems the like most. Often the puzzles are presented in the form of charming stories that provides valuable insights into contemporary Russian life and customs.

I bought this book while working as a gifted children teacher. I liked it so much that I used to keep it in my car and solve riddles whenever I had to wait for someone. It is a great resource for all teachers; children are suddenly made quiet when you present a puzzle to them.

I especially like the stick puzzles, where you can distribute a number of matches to students (by the way, it works with kids, teenagers and adults alike) and give them a puzzle. The advantage of this kind of puzzle is that you can give additional tasks to those fast-solvers; you do not have a story behind it.

The organization of the book is excellent; it is divided by difficulty levels as well as by type of puzzle. For example, you have different levels of geometry problems and of sticks problems.

Great book!

I was thrilled and surprised to see that this book is still in print. I loved puzzles as a child and spent many hours for fun working the problems in this book (which may have paved the way for my PhD in Computer Science). I fished out my old copy recently to show my 11 year old daughter how I spent my spare hours as a child - *not* playing computer games of dubious educational value. I am sure that working the problems in this book helped increase my problem solving skills - in a different and more general way than I was learning in school.

Of all the puzzle books and puzzles I ever owned, this is the only one I saved. The book has a wide variety of types of puzzles (not all involve numbers). While some are easy, most were challenging. The descriptions were charming, with Russian names of children and towns and quaint puzzle descriptions involving wells, or steam engines or household objects. All in all, a delightful, very educational puzzle collection.

"The Moscow Puzzles" is unique among problem-solving and brainteaser books because of the wide range of types of problems that it addresses. As a lecturer at Cal Tech's Executive Training Center, I teach "Creating Breakthrough Products" to technical executives. This book has been very helpful for those participating, because the problems it contains represent various types of psychological barriers that prevent problem-solvers and designers from achieving high-level solutions. I refer to examples from this book during the Cal Tech training session; we employ the revolutionary Russian problem-solving tool whose acronym is "TRIZ."
Other fine attributes of this book are its sense of humor and its practicality. The author has chosen everyday events and situations for his problem "plots," and in doing so, maintains the interest level of the average reader.
Readers of this book will learn to overcome personal barriers to creativity (the chief personal barrier is called "psychological inertia"), and will increase their creativity quotients by an order of magnitude, or more.
I strongly recommend this book for use in all classes from grades 4 through college senior. For the rest of us who simply like ("love") to work on challenging problems, this is the book for you. Good luck!

I greatly enjoy mathematical puzzles and brain teasers and regularly look for good puzzle books out there. I picked this one up about 10 years ago, and it's still one of the best I've ever encountered. Many of the problems are short and concise, but provide great challenges. A great learning tool as well as a nice diversion for many ages.