[BASE Cinque - Appunti di Matematica ricreativa]
Ricevo e pubblico molto volentieri questa lettera di Jerry
Slocum, nella quale egli ci presenta il libro intitolato
"The 15 Puzzle" che ha scritto assieme a Dic
Sonneveld.
Nel libro si trovano molte sorprendenti rivelazioni su questo gioco, tra cui
ad esempio l'identità del suo vero inventore, che non sarebbe Samuel Loyd ma
Noyes Chapman, che lo brevettò nel 1880.
Ci sono anche alcune autorevoli recensioni e un link al sito di Slocum.
Hi,
After seeing your web site section about Sam Loyd, I thought that you would like to know about our new book describing the history of the Fifteen Puzzle, titled, "The 15 Puzzle", by Jerry Slocum and Dic Sonneveld.
Many surprising things were revealed during our several years of primary source research, including:
Some Early 15 Puzzle Book Reviews (alcune recensioni)
Martin Gardner, Author of 15 Classic Books on
Mathematical Recreations
Jerry Slocum and Dic Sonneveld have written an amazing tour de force. It
covers in fantastic detail the history of the greatest mechanical puzzle
craze ever to sweep not only the United States but also England and Europe.
The Rubik’s Cube mania was modest in comparison. Did Sam Loyd,
America’s greatest puzzle maker, invent the notorious 14-15 sliding
block puzzle? He claimed he did but the claimwas a total lie. Loyd had
nothing whatsoever to do with either the puzzle or its popularity. Who was
the actual inventor? The authors of this book will tell you. Their history is
crammed with color photographs of the incredible variety of marketed versions
of the unpatented puzzle, and with scores of cartoons and comic poems poking
fun at the millions of people almost driven crazy by trying to solve the
puzzle. For mathematicians there are clear summaries of proofs of
impossibility, clever pseudo-solutions, and ingenious variants using words
and pictures instead of numbers. The research done by the two authors is
awesome. It is a book hard to put down.
Will Shortz, Crossword Editor, NY Times &
PuzzleMaster, National Public Radio
The 15 Puzzle is the granddaddy of all sliding-block puzzles. It was a
worldwide sensation more than a century ago -- the first major novelty craze
of the industrial age, the progenitor, in a way, of Pigs in Clover,
crosswords, Rubik's Cube, sudoku, and all the other mental manias in the
years since.
… this is a surprising, entertaining, and painstakingly researched
book…
This is a book that everyone interested in puzzles will enjoy.
David Singmaster, Professor of Mathematics and
Metagrobologist
An outstanding feature of The 15 Puzzle is the profusion of quotations from
contemporary newspapers and photos of examples of the puzzles and their boxes
and advertising. The whole story is a bit like an Indiana Jones film, but has
the immense advantages of being true and coherent! This is a monumental work
which resolves one of the great historical puzzles of puzzledom. Many
congratulations to Slocum and Sonneveld!
Professor Don Knuth, Stanford U., Author of
The Art of ComputerProgramming
This book is a visual delight in addition to setting incredible new standards
in historical research about the world's fascinating puzzle subculture.
Reading the book has made me substantially more optimistic about being able
to track down sources of ideas that I once thought would be impossible to
trace.
For more details see: www.SlocumPuzzles.com
Jerry Slocum
jslocum@earthlink.net
www.SlocumPuzzles.com
A titolo di informazione, incollo qui sotto una scansione della pagina 235 della mitica Cyclopedia of Puzzles nella quale Sam Loyd presenta il gioco del 15.
Data creazione: giugno 2006
Ultimo aggiornamento: giugno 2006
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Sito Web realizzato da Gianfranco Bo