So You Think You've Got Problems?

Surprising and rewarding puzzles to sharpen your mind

Alex Bellos

• Publisher: Guardian Faber Publishing
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783351923
• Year: 2019

So you think you've got problems? In this book, you will be:

Imprisoned by a sadistic logician.
Challenged to raise dogs from the dead.
Trapped on a burning island.
And much more besides . . .

Everything is at stake in this compendium of more than 150 ingenious puzzles, selected to reveal the wonderful diversity of brainteasers that have confounded and intrigued solvers for the last thousand years. You'll need to pit your wits against probability problems, wrestle with wordplay, grapple with geometry and scrabble for survival.

Along the way you will discover stories of whip-smart thinkers, eccentric novelists and a poodle with allegedly supernatural powers. You will absorb fascinating and important mathematical ideas. Some solutions will rely on ingenuity, some will challenge you to spot hidden patterns, others call for extreme rationality. All will surprise, entertain and stretch your brain.

Will you make it out with your puzzling pride intact?

Table of contents

• Cover
• LANDING PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• DEDICATION
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• Tasty teasers: number conundrums
• The puzzle zoo: ANIMAL PROBLEMS
• Tasty teasers: gruelling grids
• I’m a mathematician, get me out of here: SURVIVAL PROBLEMS
• Tasty teasers: riotous riddles
• Cakes, cubes and a cobbler’s knife: GEOMETRY PROBLEMS
• Tasty teasers: pencils and utensils
• A wry plod: WORD PROBLEMS
• Tasty teasers: Bongard bafflers
• Sleepless nights and sibling rivalries: PROBABILITY PROBLEMS
• ANSWERS
• A LIST OF THE PUZZLES AND A NOTE ON THEIR SOURCES
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• COPYRIGHT