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Title: Aha! Insight
ISBN: 071671017X
Author:
Martin Gardner
Publicate Date: 1978-06
Publish: 1978-06
List Price: $14.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $40.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $6.10
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| Customer Review: |
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1: WARNING: SAME book as Aha! Aha! Insight
The 3 stars is NOT about the content of the book - it's because of the following:
The following two books are 100% IDENTICAL:
"Aha! Insight by Gardner, Martin". ISBN: 071671017X
&
"Aha! Aha! Insight by Gardner, Martin". ISBN: 0894540017
Don't be fooled by the different ISBN's - the covers are identical and flipping through both books, the pages are identical.
As for the book itself, I haven't had a chance yet to read it - I'm still trying to straighten out all the duplicates I have.
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2: Easy Read, Easy-to-Read Format
Unlike most of the author's other books on mathematics, this one is generous with whitespace, requiring less concentration. The puzzles are illustrated by the often-humorous cartoons, which greatly enhances the understandibility and readability of the book.The book itself is quite thin with an attractive cover, reinforcing the idea that math can be fun. A great way to stimulate someone's interest in the subject.
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3: A great book on an underemphasized topic
This book does a wonderful job of encouraging problem solving and critical thinking techniques. What I like most about it, though, is how it is able to present all of its problems at a high level, in an entertaining context, so as not to discourage those who might be scared or frustrated by math and other such topics.
Each problem, for the most part, has cute comics to illustrate it, as well as a plain-english explanation of how to approach finding a solution and the solution itself. Many of the problems are restricted forms of actual unsolved, or at least highly-researched, mathematical/computer science problems; the book does a excellent job of keeping that aspect separate from the problem and solution itself (how the problem is studied in the "real world" is usually mentioned in the text as an, "Oh, by the way, did you know that...")
In addition to the author's wonderful presentation, I think the subject matter is what emphasizes this book's importance. Problem solving, critical thinking, and finding elegant simple solutions seems to me to be underemphasized in quite a few disciplines, and this book can offer good practice in all those important areas. Even if you don't ever deal with problems which require critical thinking, the book is still an interesting read because it makes you say, "Why didn't I think of that?" -- and then by half way through the book, you DO start to think of "that."
The only negative thing I would say is that a few of the problems in the book are presented without solutions, which can frustrate some people (namely, myself :) ) Also, a few problems are underspecified, yielding to answers which depend on the interpretation -- then again, that's part of what problem solving is about, I guess.
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4: This is a good ''Math book'' by:Allen
This a very good book !! I can't explain why but it is just to wonderful. This book dose not only tell us about math . it also tell us about launange , logic , and many many other thing . You can read it when your bored or on the trip to vacation or , you can ask your friend the question in the book , and see if they can answer it wright? However , this book is program for some one who like math , launange , logic . So if you like these object you might like to read this great great book!!!!
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5: Mathematical puzzles for all ages
This book gave me a lot to think about when I was young, and of all the books with math and logic puzzles I enjoyed, this was one of the best. Gardner has a way of turning problems into challenges, making the solving of them fun, and he also provides interesting explanations of problems with simplicity and clarity. For children, this book is an opportunity to explore math as something other than repetitive calculations or irrelevant word problems from bad textbooks. Adults too can use this book to hone their problem solving skills. The difficulty of aha! insights is the lack of technique in coming to such an insight. It's a spontaneous reaction, something sudden and unexpected when you discover a simple solution. These problems do not teach you how to have these insights, but allows for practice in order that they may become more frequent. But the point is: it's recreational math... Enjoy it for the sake of enjoyment.
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