Recreational Mathematics - Publications

Publications

• The journal "Eureka" published by the mathematical society of the University of Cambridge is one of the oldest publications in recreational mathematics. It has been published 60 times since 1939 and authors have included many famous mathematicians and scientists such as Martin Gardner, John Conway, Roger Penrose, Ian Stewart, Timothy Gowers, Stephen Hawking and Paul Dirac.
• The Journal of Recreational Mathematics is the largest publication on this topic.
• "Mathematical Games" was the title of a long-running column on the subject by Martin Gardner (1914-2010), in Scientific American. He inspired several generations of mathematicians and scientists, through his interest in mathematical recreations. "Mathematical Games" (1956-1981) was succeeded by "Metamagical Themas" (1981-19??), a similarly distinguished, but shorter-running, column by Douglas Hofstadter, then by "Mathematical Recreations" (19??-????), a column by Ian Stewart, and most recently "Puzzling Adventures" (????-present) by Dennis Shasha.

In popular culture

• In the Doctor Who episode "42", the Doctor completes a sequence of happy primes, then complains that schools no longer teach recreational mathematics.
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, a book about a young boy with Asperger syndrome, discusses many mathematical games and puzzles.