Stories by Martin Gardner

The sculpture of Miguel Berrocal can be taken apart like an interlocking mechanical puzzle

Dr. Matrix goes to Cailfornia to apply punk to rock study

In which joining sets of points by lines leads into diverse (and diverting) paths

On playing New Eleusis, the game that simulates the search for truth

On conic sections, ruled surfaces and other manifestations of the hyperbola

A new kind of cipher that would take millions of years to break

Cutting things into equal parts leads into significant areas of mathematics

The concept of negative numbers and the difficulty of grasping it

The "jump proof" and its similarity to the toppling of a row of dominoes

The pool-table triangle, a limerick paradox and divers other challenges

Cornering a queen leads unexpectedly into corners of the theory of numbers

The flip-strip sonnet, the lipogram and other mad modes of wordplay

Extraordinary nonperiodic tiling that enriches the theory of tiles

In which "monster" curves force redefinition of the word "curve"

In which DM (Dr. Matrix) is revealed as the guru of PM (Pentagonal Meditation)

Combinatorial problems, some old, some new and all newly attacked by computer

John Horton Conway's book covers an infinity of games

The symmetrical arrangement of the stars on the American flag and related matters

Fun and serious business with the small electronic calculator

Catalan numbers: an integer sequence that materializes in unexpected places

A few words about everything there was, is and ever will be

Snarks, Boojums and other conjectures related to the four-color-map theorem

On the fabric of inductive logic, and some probability paradoxes

Some elegant brick-packing problems, and a new order-7 perfect magic cube