List of Martin Gardner Mathematical Games columns facts for kids

Martin Gardner was a super smart writer who loved math, puzzles, and games! For 24 years, from January 1957 to December 1980, he wrote a monthly column called "Mathematical Games" for Scientific American magazine. He wrote 288 columns in a row! After that, he wrote 9 more columns until June 1986, bringing his total to 297. These columns were famous for making tricky math ideas fun and easy to understand.

What Were These Columns About?

Martin Gardner's columns were like a treasure chest of brain teasers, magic tricks, and cool math puzzles. He explored all sorts of topics, from simple games to deep mathematical ideas, always in a way that made you want to learn more. He showed how math is everywhere, not just in textbooks!

Fun with Puzzles and Games

Gardner loved puzzles! He wrote about many different kinds, like:

• Logic puzzles: Problems that make you think carefully to find the answer, like the famous "monkey and coconuts" puzzle.
• Board games: He explored games like Hex and Nim, showing how math can help you win.
• Paper folding: He even wrote about Origami, the Japanese art of folding paper, and how it connects to geometry.
• Sliding puzzles: Like the ones where you slide blocks around to make a picture.
• Chess problems: Tricky situations on a chessboard that challenge your thinking.

Amazing Math Ideas

Gardner made complex math concepts exciting. He introduced readers to:

• Magic squares: Grids of numbers where rows, columns, and diagonals all add up to the same total.
• Möbius bands: A strange shape that only has one side and one edge! Imagine a loop that's twisted once before its ends are joined.
• Topology: This is a branch of math about shapes that can be stretched or bent without tearing. He wrote about things like the Klein bottle, which has no inside or outside!
• Phi: A special number found in nature and art, often called the "golden ratio."
• Fibonacci sequence: A sequence of numbers where each number is the sum of the two before it (like 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8...). You can find it in pinecones and sunflowers!
• Fractals: Beautiful, complex shapes that look the same no matter how much you zoom in, like the Koch snowflake.
• Probability theory: The math of chance and how likely something is to happen, like in card games or dice rolls.

Famous Characters and Discoveries

Sometimes, Gardner would introduce fun characters or talk about real-life math geniuses:

• Dr. Matrix: A fictional numerologist (someone who believes numbers have special meanings) who would often appear in his columns with funny predictions and insights.
• Sam Loyd: A real puzzle inventor from the past, whose amazing creations Gardner shared.
• John Horton Conway: A brilliant mathematician whose famous "Game of Life" (a kind of digital world where simple rules create complex patterns) was first introduced to many in Gardner's column.
• M. C. Escher: An artist famous for his mind-bending drawings that often used mathematical ideas like tessellations (patterns that fit together without gaps).

More Articles by Martin Gardner

Besides his "Mathematical Games" columns, Martin Gardner also wrote a few other articles for Scientific American. One of his earliest articles, about flexagons in December 1956, was so popular that it led directly to the start of his famous monthly series!

Here are some of his other articles:

• 1952 Mar: Logic Machines
• 1956 Dec: Flexagons
• 1967 Jan: Can Time go Backward?
• 1998 Aug: A Quarter-Century of Recreational Mathematics
• 2007 Apr: Is Beauty Truth and Truth Beauty? [book review]