Perilous Problems for Puzzle Lovers: Math, Logic & Word Puzzles to Challenge Your Brain

by Alex Bellos

Overview

Thought you had it bad? In this book, you will be:

Imprisoned by a sadistic logician.
Challenged to raise dogs from the dead.
Trapped on a burning island.
And much more besides . . .

Everything is at stake in this compendium of more than 125 ingenious puzzles selected to reveal the wonderful diversity of brainteasers that have confounded and intrigued solvers for the last thousand years. You’ll need to pit your wits against probability problems, wrestle with wordplay, grapple with geometry, and scrabble for survival.

Along the way, you will meet whip-smart thinkers of yore, eccentric novelists, and a poodle with allegedly supernatural powers. You will absorb fascinating and important mathematical ideas. Some solutions rely on ingenuity, some challenge you to spot hidden patterns, and others call for extreme rationality. All will surprise, entertain, and stretch your brain.

Will you make it out with your puzzling pride intact?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615197187
Publisher:	The Experiment
Publication date:	10/27/2020
Series:	Alex Bellos Puzzle Books
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	176,612
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Alex Bellos holds a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Oxford University. His bestselling books Here’s Looking at Euclid and The Grapes of Math have been translated into more than 20 languages and were both shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book prize. His puzzle books include Can You Solve My Problems?, Puzzle Ninja, Perilous Problems for Puzzle Lovers, and The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book, and he is also the coauthor of the coloring books Patterns of the Universe and Visions of the Universe. He has launched an elliptical pool table, LOOP. He writes a popular-math blog and a puzzle blog for the Guardian, and he won the Association of British Science Writers award for best science blog in 2016. He lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

"Lots of Ah, Aha, and Haha, which is the mark of a good puzzle."

Rob Eastaway

"This puzzle book by the brilliant [Alex Bellos] is keeping me nice and entertained. . . . Very clever."

Rachel Riley

"As anyone who follows his Guardian puzzle column will know, Alex has very good taste in puzzles. Unsurprisingly, therefore, this is a great collection."

Chalkdust magazine

"Smart thinker Alex Bellos . . . has designed these brilliantly challenging puzzles to send the little grey brain cells into overdrive . . . knotty problems, hidden patterns, confusing conundrums, and devious survival situations."

Sunday Express

Smart thinker Alex Bellos . . . has designed these brilliantly challenging puzzles to send the little grey brain cells into overdrive . . . knotty problems, hidden patterns, confusing conundrums, and devious survival situations.”—Sunday Express

“This puzzle book by the brilliant [Alex Bellos] is keeping me nice and entertained. . . . Very clever.”—Rachel Riley, cohost of Countdown

“Lots of Ah, Aha, and Haha, which is the mark of a good puzzle.”—Rob Eastaway, coauthor of Why Do Buses Come in Threes?

“As anyone who follows his Guardian puzzle column will know, Alex has very good taste in puzzles. Unsurprisingly, therefore, this is a great collection.”—Chalkdust magazine

From the Publisher