Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries

As demonstrated by Stewart in this enjoyable presentation, there seems to be no end to new mathematical recreations. With ideas drawn from physics and biology, as well as traditional mathematics, this book consists of an assortment of puzzles, problems, jokes, surprising discoveries, and descriptions of areas still under investigation. The examples have been selected from many sources and, so, the avid reader of math columns in popular periodicals will find some of it familiar, but much will be new to most people. Subjects delved into include prime number problems, logic puzzles, map coloring and graph theory, paper folding, and tiling problems. The impact of high-speed computers, which make it possible to print out the exact values of large numbers that come up in the number theoretic exercises, is interesting to note. The exposition is composed in the form of a takeoff on Sherlock Holmes and is peppered with corny comments at which one cannot help but laugh. However, there is no real theme to this eclectic collection.