Excellent guide to dozens of mystifying acts of deception provides aspiring magicians with all the information they need to perform professional-quality tricks. Step-by-step instructions and nearly 200 easy-to-follow diagrams show how to make cards vanish and reappear, get coins to pass through solid objects, make articles mysteriously travel from one location to another, more.

Since the publication of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity in 1905, the discovery of such astronomical phenomena as quasars, pulsars, and black holes - all intimately connected to relativity - has provoked a tremendous upsurge of interest in the subject. This volume, a revised version of Martin Gardner's earlier Relativity for the Million, brings this fascinating topic up to date. Witty, perceptive, and easily accessible to the general reader,...

A barber in Chicago says he'd rather cut the hair of ten red-headed men than the hair of one brown-haired man. Can you guess why? Ask Professor Picanumba, a master of riddles who carries dozens of surefire tricks up his sleeve. He'll show you how to astonish your friends and family by predicting the answers to 88 word and number challenges. These tricks require only simple props-a deck of cards or a couple of pairs of dice, a calculator, and a pencil...

Ready to have your mind boggled? World-famous puzzle master Martin Gardner has provided more than 100 ways to give your little gray cells a workout. These unusual puzzles, many of them original, include palindromes, anagrams, rebuses, and logic puzzles. Their whimsical illustrations contain occasional clues and plenty of humor. If you're stumped, you can consult the back of the book for complete solutions. Martin Gardner was renowned for his "Mathematical...

This fair and witty appraisal examines some of the crazes and quackeries that have masqueraded as science. Discussions include hollow earth theories; Charles Fort and the Fortean Society; Wilhelm Reich and orgone sex energy; dianetics; flying saucers; food and medical fads; much more.

The noted expert and longtime author of Scientific American's Mathematical Games column selects 70 of his favorite "short" puzzles. Enthusiasts can challenge their skills with such mind-bogglers as The Returning Explorer, The Mutilated Chessboard, Scrambled Box Tops, Bronx vs. Brooklyn, and dozens more involving logic and basic math. Complete solutions included.

The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener showcases Martin Gardner as the consummate philosopher, thinker, and great mathematician that he is. Exploring issues that range from faith to prayer to evil to immortality, and far beyond, Garnder challenges the discerning reader with fundamental questions of classical philosophy and life's greater meanings. Recalling such philosophers was Wittgenstein and Arendt, The Whys of Philosophical Scrivener embodies...

"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." Or is he? In H. G. Wells' acclaimed tale, a stranded mountaineer encounters an isolated society in which his apparent advantage proves less than valuable. This thought-provoking fable is accompanied by other short stories, including "The Star," a gripping tale about a massive celestial object hurtling toward the Earth, as well as "The New Accelerator," "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes,"...