Puzzling Adventures

Hours of recreational reckoning.

Collected and enhanced from Dennis Shasha's popular Scientific American column, here are thirty-six of the most innovative and emotive mathematical puzzles ever to appear in its pages. Edgy, challenging and representing the ultimate in recreational mathematical games, Puzzling Adventures dares the reader to work out the logic underlying venture fund investments, escape a Minotaur, catch a polar bear, play power politics, work out if a witness is lying, spy on contraband traders and verify DNA. An encrypted set of stories and commentary float above the puzzles. They need decrypting to discover their hints. The hints lead to a surprise—if the reader can work them out.