List of Martin Gardner Mathematical Games columns

Martin Gardner wrote 288 consecutive "Mathematical Games" columns for the magazine Scientific American.  The first one was in January 1957. The last one was in December 1980.  After 1980 other people wrote some of the columns.  Gardner created 9 more columns during that time.  The last Mathematical Games column appeared in June 1986.  The list below shows all the 297 columns that Gardner wrote.

Sometimes Scientific American put pictures about the columns on the front cover of the magazine. There were twelve such covers. The list shows the word [cover] when there is a such a picture.  Click on the word [cover] to see the picture.

date Title 1957 Jan  A new kind of magic square with remarkable propertiesScientific American January 1957 Issue: Mathematical Games Note: See this page and other pages like it for each date in the list of covers. 1957 Feb  An assortment of maddening puzzlesScientific American February 1957 Issue: Mathematical Games Note: See this page and other pages like it for each date in the list of covers 1957 Mar  Some old and new Versions of ticktacktoe 1957 Apr  Paradoxes dealing with birthdays, playing cards, coins, crows and red-haired typists 1957 May  About the remarkable similarity between the Icosian Game and the Tower of Hanoi 1957 Jun  Curious figures descended from the Möbius band, which has only one side and one edge 1957 Jul  Concerning the game of Hex, which may be played on the tiles of the bathroom floor 1957 Aug  The life and work of Sam Loyd, a mighty inventor of puzzles 1957 Sep Concerning various card tricks with a mathematical message 1957 Oct  How to remember numbers by mnemonic devices such as cuff links and red zebras 1957 Nov  Nine titillating puzzles 1957 Dec  More about complex dominoes 1958 Jan  A collection of tantalizing fallacies of mathematics 1958 Feb  Concerning the game of Nim and its mathematical analysis 1958 Mar  About left- and right-handedness, mirror images and kindred matters 1958 Apr  Concerning the celebrated puzzle of five sailors, a monkey and a pile of coconuts 1958 May  About tetraflexagons and tetraflexagation 1958 Jun  About Henry Ernest Dudeney, a brilliant creator of puzzles 1958 Jul  Some diverting tricks which involve the concept of numerical congruence 1958 Aug  A third collection of "brain-teasers" 1958 Sep  A game in which standard pieces composed of cubes are assembled into larger forms 1958 Oct  Four mathematical diversions involving concepts of topology 1958 Nov  How rectangles, including squares, can be divided into squares of unequal size [cover] 1958 Dec Diversions which involve the five Platonic solids 1959 Jan  About mazes and how they can be traversed 1959 Feb  "Brain-teasers" that involve formal logic 1959 Mar  Concerning the properties of various magic squares 1959 Apr  The mathematical diversions of a fictitious carnival man 1959 May  Another collection of "brain-teasers" 1959 Jun  An inductive card game 1959 Jul  About Origami, the Japanese art of folding objects out of paper 1959 Aug  About phi, an irrational number that has some remarkable geometrical expressions 1959 Sep  Concerning mechanical puzzles, and how an enthusiast has collected 2,000 of them 1959 Oct  Problems involving questions of probability and ambiguity 1959 Nov  How three modern mathematicians disproved a celebrated conjecture of Leonhard Euler [cover] 1959 Dec  Diversions that clarify group theory, particularly by the weaving of braids 1960 Jan  A fanciful dialogue about the wonders of numerology 1960 Feb  A fifth collection of "brain-teasers" 1960 Mar  The games and puzzles of Lewis Carroll 1960 Apr  About mathematical games that are played on boards 1960 May  Reflections on the packing of spheres 1960 Jun  Recreations involving folding and cutting sheets of paper 1960 Jul  Incidental information about the extraordinary number pi 1960 Aug  An imaginary dialogue on "mathemagic": tricks based on mathematical principles 1960 Sep  problem of topology 1960 Oct  A new collection of "brain-teasers" 1960 Nov  More about the shapes that can be made with complex dominoes 1960 Dec  Some recreations involving the binary number system 1961 Jan  In which the author chats again with Dr. Matrix, numerologist extraordinary 1961 Feb  Diversions that involve one of the classic conic sections: the ellipse 1961 Mar  How to play dominoes in two and three dimensions 1961 Apr  Concerning the diversions in a new book on geometry [cover] 1961 May  In which the editor of this department meets the legendary Bertrand Apollinax 1961 Jun  A new collection of "brain teasers" 1961 Jul  Some diverting mathematical board games 1961 Aug  Some entertainments that involve the calculus of finite differences 1961 Sep  Surfaces with edges linked in the same way as the three rings of a well-known design 1961 Oct  Diversions that involve the mathematical constant "e" 1961 Nov  Wherein geometrical figures are dissected to make other figures 1961 Dec  On the theory of probability and the practice of gambling 1962 Jan  An adventure in hyperspace at the Church of the Fourth Dimension 1962 Feb  A clutch of diverting problems 1962 Mar  How to build a game-learning machine and teach it to play and win 1962 Apr  About three types of spirals and how to construct them 1962 May  Symmetry and asymmetry and the strange world of upside-down art 1962 Jun  The game of solitaire and some variations and transformations 1962 Jul  Fiction about life in two dimensions 1962 Aug  A variety of diverting tricks collected at a fictitious convention of magicians 1962 Sep  Tests that show whether a large number can be divided by a number from 2 to 12 1962 Oct  A collection of puzzles involving numbers, logic, and probability 1962 Nov  Some puzzles based on checkerboards 1962 Dec  Some simple tricks and manipulations from the ancient lore of string play 1963 Jan  The author pays his annual visit to Dr. Matrix, the numerologist 1963 Feb  Curves of constant width, one of which makes it possible to drill square holes 1963 Mar  A new paradox, and variations on it, about a man condemned to be hanged 1963 Apr  A bit of foolishness for April Fools' Day 1963 May  On rep-tiles, polygons that can make larger and smaller copies of themselves 1963 Jun  A discussion of helical structures, from corkscrews to DNA molecules 1963 Jul  Topological diversions, including a bottle with no inside or outside 1963 Aug  Permutations and paradoxes in combinatorial mathematics 1963 Sep  How to solve puzzles by graphing the rebounds of a bouncing ball 1963 Oct  About two new and two old mathematical board games 1963 Nov  A mixed bag of problems 1963 Dec  How to use the odd-even check for tricks and problem-solving 1964 Jan  Presenting the one and only Dr. Matrix, numerologist, in his annual performance 1964 Feb  The hypnotic fascination of sliding-block puzzles 1964 Mar  The remarkable lore of the prime numbers [cover] 1964 Apr  Various problems based on planar graphs, or sets of "vertices" connected by "edges" 1964 May  The tyranny of 10 overthrown with the ternary number system 1964 Jun  A collection of short problems and more talk of prime numbers 1964 Jul  Curious properties of a cycloid curve 1964 Aug  Concerning several magic tricks based on mathematical principles 1964 Sep  Puns, palindromes and other word games that partake of the mathematical spirit 1964 Oct  Simple proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, and sundry other matters 1964 Nov  Some paradoxes and puzzles involving infinite series and the concept of limit 1964 Dec  On polyiamonds: shapes that are made out of equilateral triangles 1965 Jan  Some comments by Dr. Matrix on symmetries and reversals 1965 Feb  Tetrahedrons in nature and architecture, and puzzles involving this simplest polyhedron 1965 Mar  A new group of short problems 1965 Apr  The infinite regress in philosophy, literature and mathematical proof 1965 May  The lattice of integers considered as an orchard or a billiard table 1965 Jun  Some diversions and problems from Mr. O'Gara, the postman 1965 Jul  On the relation between mathematics and the ordered patterns of Op art [cover] 1965 Aug  Thoughts on the task of Communication with intelligent organisms on other worlds 1965 Sep  The superellipse: a curve that lies between the ellipse and the rectangle 1965 Oct  Pentominoes and polyominoes: five games and a sampling of problems 1965 Nov  A selection of elementary word and number problems 1965 Dec  Magic stars, graphs and polyhedrons 1966 Jan  Dr. Matrix returns, now in the guise of a neo-Freudian psychonumeranalyst 1966 Feb  Recreational numismatics, or a purse of coin puzzles 1966 Mar  The hierarchy of infinities and the problems it spawns 1966 Apr  The eerie mathematical art of Maurits C. Escher 1966 May  How to cook a puzzle, or mathematical one-uppery 1966 Jun  The persistence (and futility) of efforts to trisect the angle 1966 Jul  Freud's friend Wilhelm Fliess and his theory of male and female life cycles 1966 Aug  Puzzles that can be solved by reasoning based on elementary physical principles 1966 Sep  The problem of Mrs. Perkins' quilt 1966 Oct  Can the shuffling of cards (and other apparently random events) be reversed? 1966 Nov  Is it possible to visualize a four-dimensional figure? 1966 Dec  The multiple charms of Pascal's triangle 1967 Jan  Dr. Matrix delivers a talk on acrostics 1967 Feb  Mathematical strategies for two-person contests 1967 Mar  An array of problems that can be solved with elementary mathematical techniques 1967 Apr  The amazing feats of professional mental calculators, and some tricks of the trade 1967 May  Cube-root extraction and the calendar trick, or how to cheat in mathematics 1967 Jun  The polyhex and the polyabolo, polygonal jigsaw puzzle pieces 1967 Jul  Of sprouts and Brussels sprouts, games with a topological flavor 1967 Aug  In which a computer prints out mammoth polygonal factorials 1967 Sep  Double acrostics, stylized Victorian ancestors of today's crossword puzzle 1967 Oct  Problems that are built on the knight's move in chess 1967 Nov  A mixed bag of logical and illogical problems to solve 1967 Dec  Game theory is applied (for a change) to games 1968 Jan  The beauties of the square, as expounded by Dr. Matrix to rehabilitate the hippie 1968 Feb  Combinatorial problems involving tree graphs and forests of trees 1968 Mar  A short treatise on the useless elegance of perfect numbers and amicable pairs 1968 Apr  Puzzles and tricks with a dollar bill 1968 May  Circles and spheres, and how they kiss and pack 1968 Jun  Combinatorial possibilities in a pack of shuffled cards 1968 Jul  On the meaning of randomness and some ways of achieving it 1968 Aug  An array of puzzles and tricks, with a few traps for the unwary 1968 Sep  Counting systems and the relationship between numbers and the real world 1968 Oct  MacMahon's color triangles and the joys of fitting them together 1968 Nov  On the ancient lore of dice and the odds against making a point 1968 Dec  The world of the Möbius strip: endless, edgeless and one-sided 1969 Jan  Dr. Matrix gives his explanation of why Mr. Nixon was elected President 1969 Feb  Boolean algebra, Venn diagrams and the propositional calculus 1969 Mar  The multiple fascinations of the Fibonacci sequence 1969 Apr  An octet of problems that emphasize gamesmanship, logic and probability 1969 May  The rambling random walk and its gambling equivalent 1969 Jun  Random walks, by semidrunk bugs and others, on the square and on the cube 1969 Jul  Tricks, games and puzzles that employ matches as counters and line segments 1969 Aug  Simplicity as a scientific concept: Does nature keep her accounts on a thumbnail? 1969 Sep  Geometric constructions with a compass and a straightedge, and also with a compass alone 1969 Oct  A numeranalysis by Dr. Matrix of the lunar flight of Apollo 11 1969 Nov  A new pencil-and-paper game based on inductive reasoning [cover] 1969 Dec  A handful of combinatorial problems based on dominoes 1970 Jan  The abacus: primitive but effective digital computer 1970 Feb  Nine new puzzles to solve 1970 Mar  Cyclic numbers and their properties 1970 Apr  Some mathematical curiosities embedded in the solar system 1970 May  Of optical illusions, from figures that are undecidable to hot dogs that float 1970 Jun  Elegant triangle theorems not to be found in Euclid 1970 Jul  Diophantine analysis and the problem of Fermat's legendary last theorem 1970 Aug  Backward run numbers, letters, words and sentences until boggles the mind 1970 Sep  On the cyclical curves generated by wheels that roll along wheels 1970 Oct  The fantastic combinations of John Conway's new solitaire game "life" 1970 Nov  A new collection of short problems and the answers to some of "life's" 1970 Dec  The paradox of the nontransitive dice and the elusive principle of indifference 1971 Jan  Lessons from Dr. Matrix in chess and numerology 1971 Feb  On cellular automata, self-reproduction, the Garden of Eden and the game "life" [cover] 1971 Mar  The orders of infinity, the topological nature of dimension and "supertasks" 1971 Apr  Geometric fallacies: hidden errors pave the road to absurd conclusions 1971 May  The combinatorial richness of folding a piece of paper 1971 Jun  The Turing game and the question it presents: Can a computer think? 1971 Jul  Quickie problems: not hard, but look out for the curves 1971 Aug  Ticktacktoe and its complications 1971 Sep  The plaiting of Plato's polyhedrons and the asymmetrical yin-yang-lee 1971 Oct  New puzzles from the game of Halma, the noble ancestor of Chinese checkers 1971 Nov  Advertising premiums to beguile the mind: classics by Sam Loyd, master puzzle-poser 1971 Dec  Further encounters with touching cubes, and the paradoxes of Zeno as "supertasks" 1972 Jan  How to triumph at nim by playing safe, and John Horton Conway's game "Hackenbush" 1972 Feb  Dr. Matrix poses some heteroliteral puzzles while peddling perpetual motion in Houston 1972 Mar  The graceful graphs of Solomon Golomb, or how to number a graph parsimoniously 1972 Apr  A topological problem with a fresh twist, and eight other new recreational puzzles 1972 May  Challenging chess tasks for puzzle buffs and answers to the recreational problems 1972 Jun  A miscellany of transcendental problems: simple to state but not at all easy to solve 1972 Jul  Amazing mathematical card tricks that do not require prestidigitation 1972 Aug  The curious properties of the Gray code and how it can be used to solve puzzles 1972 Sep  Pleasurable problems with polycubes, and the winning strategy for Slither 1972 Oct  Why the long arm of coincidence is usually not as long as it seems 1972 Nov  On the practical uses and bizarre abuses of Sir Francis Bacon's biliteral cipher 1972 Dec  Knotty problems with a two-hole torus 1973 Jan  Sim, Chomp and Race Track: new games for the intellect (and not for Lady Luck) 1973 Feb  Up-and-down elevator games and Piet Hein's mechanical puzzles 1973 Mar  The calculating rods of John Napier, the eccentric father of the logarithm 1973 Apr  How to turn a chessboard into a computer and to calculate with negabinary numbers 1973 May  A new miscellany of problems, and encores for Race Track, Sim, Chomp and elevators 1973 Jun graphs]] 1973 Jul  Free will revisited, with a mind-bending prediction paradox by William Newcomb 1973 Aug  An astounding self-test of clairvoyance by Dr. Matrix 1973 Sep  Problems on the surface of a sphere offer an entertaining introduction to point sets 1973 Oct  "Look-see" diagrams that offer visual proof of complex algebraic formulas 1973 Nov  Fantastic patterns traced by programmed "worms" 1973 Dec  On expressing integers as the sum of cubes and other unsolved number-theory problems 1974 Jan  The combinatorial basis of the "I Ching," the Chinese book of divination and wisdom [cover] 1974 Feb  Cram, crosscram and quadraphage: new games having elusive winning strategies 1974 Mar  Reflections on Newcomb's problem: a prediction and free-will dilemma 1974 Apr  Nine challenging problems, some rational and some not 1974 May  On the contradictions of time travel 1974 Jun  Dr. Matrix brings his numerological Science to bear on the occult powers of the pyramid 1974 Jul  On the patterns and the unusual properties of figurate numbers 1974 Aug  On the fanciful history and the creative challenges of the puzzle game of tangrams 1974 Sep  More on tangrams: Combinatorial problems and the game possibilities of snug tangrams 1974 Oct  On the paradoxical situations that arise from nontransitive relations 1974 Nov  Some new and dramatic demonstrations of number theorems with playing cards 1974 Dec  The arts as combinatorial mathematics, or how to compose like Mozart with dice 1975 Jan  The curious magic of anamorphic art [cover] 1975 Feb  How the absence of anything leads to thoughts of nothing 1975 Mar  From rubber ropes to rolling cubes, a miscellany of refreshing problems 1975 Apr  Six sensational discoveries that somehow or another have escaped public attention 1975 May  On the remarkable Császár polyhedron and its applications in problem solving 1975 Jun  Games of strategy for two players: star nim, meander, dodgem and rex 1975 Jul  On tessellating the plane with convex polygon tiles 1975 Aug  More about tiling the plane: the possibilities of polyominoes, polyiamonds, and polyhexes 1975 Sep  Dr. Matrix finds numerological wonders in the King James Bible 1975 Oct  Concerning an effort to demonstrate extrasensory perception by machine 1975 Nov  On map projections (with special reference to some inspired ones) [cover] 1975 Dec  A random assortment of puzzles, together with reader responses to earlier problems 1976 Jan  A breakthrough in magic squares, and the first perfect magic cube 1976 Feb  Some elegant brick-packing problems, and a new order-7 perfect magic cube 1976 Mar  On the fabric of inductive logic, and some probability paradoxes 1976 Apr  Snarks, Boojums and other conjectures related to the four-color-map theorem 1976 May  A few words about everything there was, is and ever will be 1976 Jun  Catalan numbers: an integer sequence that materializes in unexpected places 1976 Jul  Fun and serious business with the small electronic calculator 1976 Aug  The symmetrical arrangement of the stars on the American flag and related matters 1976 Sep  John Horton Conway's book covers an infinity of games 1976 Oct  Combinatorial problems, some old, some new and all newly attacked by computer 1976 Nov  In which DM (Dr. Matrix) is revealed as the guru of PM (Pentagonal Meditation) 1976 Dec  In which "monster" curves force redefinition of the word "curve" 1977 Jan  Extraordinary nonperiodic tiling that enriches the theory of tiles [cover] 1977 Feb  The flip-strip sonnet, the lipogram and other mad modes of wordplay 1977 Mar  Cornering a queen leads unexpectedly into corners of the theory of numbers 1977 Apr  The pool-table triangle, a limerick paradox and divers other challenges 1977 May  The "jump proof" and its similarity to the toppling of a row of dominoes 1977 Jun  The concept of negative numbers and the difficulty of grasping it 1977 Jul  Cutting things into equal parts leads into significant areas of mathematics 1977 Aug  A new kind of cipher that would take millions of years to break 1977 Sep  On conic sections, ruled surfaces and other manifestations of the hyperbola 1977 Oct  On playing New Eleusis, the game that simulates the search for truth 1977 Nov  In which joining sets of points by lines leads into diverse (and diverting) paths 1977 Dec  Dr. Matrix goes to California to apply punk to rock study 1978 Jan  The sculpture of Miguel Berrocal can be taken apart like an interlocking mechanical puzzle 1978 Feb  On checker jumping, the Amazon game, weird dice, card tricks and other playful pastimes 1978 Mar  Count Dracula, Alice, Portia and many others consider various twists of logic 1978 Apr  White and brown music, fractal curves and one-over-f fluctuations [cover] 1978 May  The Bells: versatile numbers that can count partitions of a set, primes and even rhymes 1978 Jun  A mathematical zoo of astounding critters, imaginary and otherwise 1978 Jul  On Charles Sanders Peirce: philosopher and gamesman 1978 Aug  A Möbius band has a finite thickness, and so it is actually a twisted prism 1978 Sep  Puzzling over a problem-solving matrix, cubes of many colors and three-dimensional dominoes 1978 Oct  Puzzles and number-theory problems arising from the curious fractions of ancient Egypt 1978 Nov  In which a mathematical aesthetic is applied to modern minimal art 1978 Dec  Is it a superintelligent robot or does Dr. Matrix ride again? 1979 Jan  The diverse pleasures of circles that are tangent to one another 1979 Feb  About rectangling rectangles, parodying Poe and many another pleasing problem 1979 Mar  On altering the past, delaying the future and other ways of tampering with time 1979 Apr  In which players of Tic-tac-toe are taught to hunt bigger game 1979 May  How to be a psychic, even if you are a horse or some other animal 1979 Jun  Chess problems on a higher plane, including mirror images, rotations and the superqueen 1979 Jul  Douglas R. Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, Bach" 1979 Aug  The imaginableness of the imaginary numbers 1979 Sep  In some patterns of numbers or words there may be less than meets the eye 1979 Oct  Some packing problems that cannot be solved by sitting on the suitcase 1979 Nov  The random number omega bids fair to hold the mysteries of the universe 1979 Dec  A pride of problems, including one that is virtually impossible 1980 Jan  Checkers, a game that can be more interesting than one might think 1980 Feb  The coloring of unusual maps leads into uncharted territory 1980 Mar  Graphs that can help cannibals, missionaries, wolves, goats and cabbages get there from here 1980 Apr  Fun with eggs: uncooked, cooked and mathematic 1980 May  What unifies dinner guests, strolling schoolgirls and handcuffed prisoners? 1980 Jun  The capture of the monster: a mathematical group with a ridiculous number of elements 1980 Jul  The pleasures of doing Science and technology in the planiverse 1980 Aug  On the fine art of putting players, pills and points into their proper pigeonholes 1980 Sep  Dr. Matrix, like Mr. Holmes, comes to an untimely and mysterious end 1980 Oct  From counting votes to making votes count: the mathematics of elections 1980 Nov  Taxicab geometry offers a free ride to a non-Euclidean locale 1980 Dec  Patterns in primes are a clue to the strong law of small numbers 1981 Feb  Gauss's congruence theory was mod as early as 1801 1981 Apr  How Lavinia finds a room on University Avenue, and other geometric problems 1981 Jun  The inspired geometrical symmetries of Scott Kim 1981 Aug  The abstract parabola fits the concrete world 1981 Oct  Euclid's parallel postulate and its modern offspring 1981 Dec  The Laffer curve and other laughs in current economics 1983 Aug  Tasks you cannot help finishing no matter how hard you try to block finishing them 1983 Sep  The topology of knots, plus the results of Douglas Hofstadter's Luring Lottery 1986 Jun  Casting a net on a checkerboard and other puzzles of the forest

Gardner wrote 5 other articles for Scientific American. He wrote an article about flexagons in December 1956.  It was really the first article about mathematical games; but it was not called that. The series of Mathematical Games columns began the following month.Book review of Martin Gardner's Undiluted Hocus-Pocus by Teller, The New York Times, January 3, 2014 These five articles are listed below.

date Title  1952 Mar  Logic MachinesScientific American March 1952 Issue: Logic Machines  1956 Dec   FlexagonsScientific American December 1956 Issue: Flexagons  1967 Jan   Can Time go Backward?Scientific American January 1967 Issue: Can Time go Backward?  1998 Aug   A Quarter-Century of Recreational MathematicsScientific American August 1998 Issue: A Quarter-Century of Recreational Mathematics  2007 Mar   Is Beauty Truth and Truth Beauty? [book review]Scientific American March 2007 Issue: Is Beauty Truth and Truth Beauty?  How Keats's famous line applies to math and science Review of Why Beauty is Truth: A History of Symmetry, by Ian Stewart

References

Other websites
 A Quarter Century of Recreational Mathematics, by Martin Gardner preserved at the Internet Archive
 A subject index for the fifteen books of Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games columns
 The Top 10 Martin Gardner Scientific American Articles

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