Mathematical Brainteasers with Surprising Solutions - Owen O'shea

nProves that math can be serious fun If you like any kind of game at all, you'll enjoy the amazing mathematical brainteasers in this entertaining book. No special mathematics training is needed. With an emphasis on puzzling word problems with surprising solutions, the author presents his mathematical hurdles in order of increasing difficulty. Many appear deceptively simple, such as: How many quarter-inch marks are on an unusual sixteen-inch ruler? Or: If the cost of a bottle and a cork is $1.10 and the bottle costs $1.00 more than the cork, how much did the bottle alone cost? Check the answers before you decide that these are too easy. You may be surprised. Novices may want to begin with some of the teasers in the first easy section. More experienced math-heads may want to test their wits with the challenging or even the difficult sections (some are fiendishly difficult). Including word problems by famed mathematical puzzle geniuses Sam Loyd (1841 - 1911) and Henry Ernest Dudeney (1857 - 1930), which have entertained recreational math aficionados for more than a century, this book has something for puzzle solvers at any level. And for the math phobic, it may whet your appetite to delve into a subject you thought could only be boring.