Aha! Insight
by Martin Gardner
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Book Summary Information
Author: Martin GardnerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1978-06
ISBN: 071671017X
Number of pages: 179
Publisher: W H Freeman & Co (Sd)
Book Reviews of Aha! Insight
Book Review: A great book on an underemphasized topic
Summary: 5 Stars
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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