This entertaining book presents a collection of 180 famous mathematical
puzzles and intriguing elementary problems that great mathematicians
have posed, discussed, and/or solved. The selected problems do not
require advanced mathematics, making this book accessible to a variety
of readers. Mathematical recreations offer a rich playground for both
amateur and professional mathematicians. Believing that creative stimuli
and aesthetic considerations are closely related, great mathematicians
from ancient times to the present have always taken an interest in
puzzles and diversions. The goal of this book is to show that famous
mathematicians have all communicated brilliant ideas, methodological
approaches, and absolute genius in mathematical thoughts by using
recreational mathematics as a framework. Concise biographies of many
mathematicians mentioned in the text are also included. The majority of
the mathematical problems presented in this book originated in number
theory, graph theory, optimization, and probability. Others are based
on combinatorial and chess problems, while still others are geometrical
and arithmetical puzzles. This book is intended to be both entertaining
as well as an introduction to various intriguing mathematical topics
and ideas. Certainly, many stories and famous puzzles can be very useful
to prepare classroom lectures, to inspire and amuse students, and to
instill affection for mathematics.

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