Persi Diaconis Lecture on Martin Gardner at BMC...

The name Martin Gardner is familiar to most mathematicians. He wrote numerous on mathematics from a culture and leisure viewpoint. (You can find his books on Amazon.) Next week Persi Diaconis will give a talk at the British Mathematical Colloquium (BMC) on the life and work of Martin Gardner. The BMC is an annual gathering of research mathematicians in the UK and beyond. Diaconis’ talk is a public lecture so anyone may attend but a (free) ticket is required. Details of the talk are here. I’ll be attending so do say hello if you see me. For all of those unable to attend but want to know a bit more about Gardner then Diaconis has co-written a biography of Gardner (as well as a great mathematical magic book). There is also a recent article in the New York...

Martin Gardner – free pdf...

I only realized recently that an edition of College Mathematics Journal dedicated to Martin Gardener is freely available for all rather than just subscribers. You can download it here: College Mathematics – Martin Gardner Special Issue. The issue is, as one might expect, a mixed bag. Of interest is a reprint of Gardener’s original article on Hexaflexagons (these were a childhood favourite for me); in the provocatively titled Martin Gardner’s Mistake Tanya Khovanova discusses the errors in solutions to Tuesday’s child problem (a problem which surfaced at Gathering for Gardner before ricocheting around the internet); Arthur Benjamin has a very simple (I mean that in a good way) article on Squaring, Cubing, and Cube Rooting. There’s also an article by Ian Stewart, who (I suppose it goes without saying) has a new book...

Martin Gardner video

I was reading Alex’s Adventures in Numberland and was inspired to find some Martin Gardner on video. I managed to locate a TV programme from 1996 which I had never seen before. And it is great! It features Max Maven, John Conway, Scott Kim, Persi Diaconis, Ron Graham, Michael Webber, Jay Marshall, Donald Coxeter, James Randi and Meir Yedid (the guy with or rather “without” the fingers!). Also, a young Gardner is seen performing magic (although the secret of one of my favourite card rise tricks is revealed). There is a section (at about 25:30) involving perfect shuffles. You can find out more in my video on the subject. The Nature of Things / Martin Gardner from Wagner Brenner on...

Memories of Martin Gardner...

The March 2011 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society has some memories of Martin Gardner from Persi Diaconis, Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, James Randi and others:...