Amusements in Mathematics

Henry Ernest Dudeney, England's greatest maker of puzzles, gathers more than four hundred of them in this book, with full solutions. There are puzzles of arithmetic and money, of geometry and cutting shapes into pieces that form new shapes, of chessboards and the moves of the pieces, of magic squares, mazes, river crossings, measuring liquids, clocks, railways and unicursal routes, most of them wrapped in a short, amusing story. Some are easy, and some have challenged mathematicians for years.

Dudeney (1857–1930) published the collection in 1917, and many of his puzzles are still reprinted in books and newspapers around the world. It is a delightful way into mathematical thinking. For an equally friendly introduction to higher mathematics, read Calculus Made Easy.