50 Mathematical Puzzles and Problems: Red Collection

Key Curriculum Press publishes three collections of puzzles and problems and the red collection is targeted at people in grades 9 through college. The problems are excellent demonstrations of proper reasoning skills, as the mathematics needed to solve them is never beyond fundamental algebra. Like all good puzzles, the key to solution is a bit of insight into the structure of the problem, so that the proper equation(s) can be constructed. The puzzles were selected from those submitted for use in the International Championship of Mathematics and Logic held each year in France. These fifty puzzles are all quite good, and most could easily be used in high school or college algebra classes and complete solutions to all fifty problems are included. In a spirit of assistance, the publishers state on the credits page that any teacher that purchases a copy has the right to reproduce the material for use in his or her own classroom. This is a sensible approach as then a teacher can simply reproduce the problem for distribution without having to purchase copies to cover each student. I applaud the publishers for their good sense in making this concession to simplify the lives of teachers. Good math problems make good math classes where students learn to enjoy mathematics as an activity rather than a chore. I have no doubt that any use of the problems in this book will move any class in that direction. They are also challenging enough that anyone who just enjoys puzzles will find it of benefit as well.Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.