The following is a list of material on Recreational Math compiled by David Singmaster over the last thirty years.

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LIST OF AVAILABLE MATERIAL

  David Singmaster, SCISM, South Bank University, London , SE1 0AA , UK OR: 87 Rodenhurst Road, London , SW4 8AF , U, OR: ZINGMAST @ SBU.AC.UK

  Over the past 30 years I have compiled materials for teaching and for my own interests. I am happy to share these with interested people.

  Titles here are descriptive and may vary slightly from what is on the document. Copies at hand may vary in format, date and number of pages, since files are constantly being updated. Some of these files can be sent by email or on floppy disk or CD. Most of them are in Script on my PC and I can output in WordPerfect or ASCII, though some files have special characters which do not come out in ASCII. Some of this is on the following web sites: www.velucchi.it; http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm/ ; http://www.johnrausch.com/puzzleworld/ . I have now prepared a CD with most of these files on it. Copies available for £10 (including postage) or similar information or books or puzzles.

  Last updated on 18 June 2004.

    GENERAL LISTS AND INFORMATION SHEETS

My publications. 16pp. Advertisement for my Cubic Circular , etc. 1p.

List of my notes for classes, etc. 5pp. (Covering calculus, algebra, number systems, programming, history, etc.)

Lecture Titles. 2pp. Information about facsimiles of Plimpton 322 and the Roman Dodecahedron, 1p each.

    ADDRESS LISTS

Secondhand Scientific Booksellers. 17pp.

Addresses of Puzzle Suppliers, Magazines, Societies, Museums. 55pp.

Computer Cubists. (Mostly old, with some updating.) 5pp.

Publishers' Abbreviations and Locations. List of details omitted in most of my book catalogues. 9pp.

    LISTS OF MATERIAL FOR SALE OR TRADE

Books on Mathematics, etc. 16pp.

Books on Recreational and Popular Mathematics. 21pp.

Books on History of Mathematics, Popular and Historical Science. 7pp.

Magazines and Periodicals. 2pp. (The above four lists include material from estates of Don Mansfield, J. H. Cadwell, Victor Meally, Ruth K. Tobias and Cecil M. Collins.)

Spare Books. General books of mine and of my wife. 7pp. R. Austin Freeman books for sale. 1p.

Spare Puzzles for Sale or Trade. 4pp.

Books, Puzzles, etc., Wanted. 13pp (+2½pp on Rubik's Cube articles). There are several special sublists.

    CATALOGUES OF MY COLLECTIONS

Rubik's Cubes and Some Other Puzzles. 117pp. (Separate file on Mini-Puzzles. 4pp.)

Books on Recreational Mathematics, etc. Approx 6015 items + 133 old books. 166pp. May 1999. £5.

  Currently approx 7811 items + 202 old books, 244 pp.

Books on Language, Words, Etc. 21pp.

Miscellaneous Humour Books. 23pp.

Cartoon Books. 2908 items. 51pp. Printed on 11 Oct 2003 .

Miscellaneous Information and Quiz Books. 18pp.

Mathematical Posters. 10pp.

Books on London . 76pp. Printed on 11 Oct 2003 .

Books on History of Mathematics, Science & Technology and Popular Science. 124pp.

    BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND INDEXES - see also Catalogues of my Collections

CLick here ==>Sources in Recreational Mathematics - An Annotated Bibliography. 6th preliminary ed., Nov. 1993, 456pp in two parts. None left. Versions are available on Velucchi's web site and perhaps Rausch's and at www.geocities.com/mathrecsources/ . Current version is 818pp.

Queries on "Sources in Recreational Mathematics", 1995, 22pp. Needs updating.

Queries on Middle Eastern/Oriental/Persian/Russian Sources in Recreational Mathematics. 6/5/5/5pp.

Books on Recreational Mathematics - A Supplement to Schaaf's Bibliographies . 18pp.

Preliminary Catalogue of the Strens/Guy Collection at Univ. of Calgary , 1985. This is reduced to 67pp.

Bibliography of Rubik's Cube and Related Puzzles. 61pp. (I haven't been keeping up on this - it has mostly material up through 1982.)

Index to Martin Gardner's Columns and Cross Reference to His Books. 2nd ptg., 22pp. Presently 23pp. Plus 9pp addenda by Don Knuth, to be incorporated into the main file.

Dudeney Material. 52pp. (Much extended by Knuth's 44pp index to Dudeney's Weekly Dispatch columns.)

Loyd Material. 11pp.

Index to Loyd & Dudeney columns in Tit-Bits , 1896-1898. 6pp.

Children's Magazines. Basic information on older magazines. 6pp.

Tic-Tac-Toe, Nine Men's Morris and related game names. 10pp.

Chessboard Dissections – Index and Summary. Revised version of 22 Sep 1998 , 5pp.

Index of Dissected Cube Puzzles. 2p. Classification of Ball Pyramid Puzzles. 1p.

Puzzle Jugs in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge . 2pp.

Index of Hundred Fowls Problems. 9pp.

Pyramid Parameters. A collation of pyramid dimensions and slopes. 5pp.

Blocks. Sizes of large blocks of stone. 5pp.

List of 16mm Films on Mathematical Subjects. 5th ed., 1983. 36pp.

Mathematical Films in the UK . Presented at the First International Conference on Mathematics and Movies, Turin , 1984. 5pp.The Publications of Édouard Lucas. 1998, 14pp. (Draft version.)

The Bibliography of Some Recreational Mathematics Books. 4th ed., Aug 2001, 61pp. Covers: Van Etten; Ozanam; Boy's Own Book ; Girl's Own Book ; W. W. Rouse Ball.

References: Computing and Mathematics in Society. 7pp. OLD.

Books of Mathematical and Recreational Interest in Lewis Carroll's Library. 12pp.

Getting Started on Mathematical Research. 15pp. Much of this is OLD.

  This includes: Problem Solving Techniques, available separately, 7pp.

My publications. 16pp.

    CHRONOLOGIES

  The first six cover some general history of the culture as well as the history of mathematics in the culture.

Egypt . 6pp. Babylonia . 8pp. Greece . 15pp. China . 19pp. India . 8pp.

The Middle Ages - From the Greeks to the Renaissance. 49pp.

Recreational Mathematics. 37pp.

History of p. 11pp. History of e. 3pp.

History of the Calendar. 17pp. History of Time Keeping. 11pp.

Mersenne and Fermat Numbers. 6pp. Development of Number. 11pp.

Babbage Chronology. 9pp. George Boole (1815-1864). 6pp. (Biography.)

Development of Modern Algebra. 20pp.

Development of Computing. Version of 22 Nov 1999 , 94pp. Current version is 116pp.

Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers, by Ken Polsson, 1995. 46pp.

Notes on Newton , including chronologies of his life and times. 21pp.

Notes on the Value of Money in Past Times. 10pp.

    PUBLICATIONS OF GENERAL INTEREST

A Mathematical Gazetteer. Version of 7 Oct 1996 . 160pp. £8. Current version is 349pp.

Visit guides to the British Museum , Cambridge , Greenwich , Oxford and the Science Museum . 8/8/8/7/8 pp. Based on the previous item, but they are now several years old and are being revised.

Notes on the History of Science and Technology in London . 3rd preliminary version, Jul 1999, 347pp. £15. Current version is 459pp.

The History of Negative Numbers. By Tom Henley, 2000, 1069pp, available as a Word2000 document on CD.

Some History of Two of Sam Loyd's Puzzles: Vanishing Puzzles and Trick Mules, Dead Dogs and Three Rabbits. 2001. 14pp + 66 images. Trick Mules, Dead Dogs and Three Rabbits has been separated out and extended to 12pp with 50 images. Available on CD.

Some Early Topological Puzzles. 9pp + 33 images. Available on CD.

A Register of Relics. A collection of notes on religious relics. 149pp.

List of Teacher-Pupil connections in mathematics. 8pp.

Projects for Students. 15pp. c50 projects for final year undergraduate and MSc students, many of which involve computer searching. There is a separate 2pp summary of this.

Notes on Polyhedra and Their History and Introduction to the POLYPACK program. 37pp plus 43 images, on CD.

Proceedings of the First UK Meeting on the History of Recreational Mathematics. At South Bank University , 24 October 1992 . Papers by John D. Beasley, R. C. Bell, C. G. Lewin, David Singmaster. 45pp. £2. JPG images and Word version on the CD.

Is Left Really Right? - Reasons for driving on the left. 32pp. Needs revision.

A Term in China (Spring 1989). 62pp. (Since reformatted to 49pp.) Puzzle collecting in China . 2pp.

Quotations on round pegs in square holes, etc. 3pp.

Sliding Block Puzzle Circulars 1-4: 10, 4, 2, 8 pp. Reformatted to 8, 3, 2, 8 pp. No. 5, unpublished, 2p.

Numerical Phrases (e.g. 26 L o t A). 85pp.

    PREPRINTS AND EXTENDED VERSIONS OF ARTICLES

Some early sources in recreational mathematics. 9pp. A version appeared in: Mathematics from Manuscript to Print , OUP, 1988, pp. 195-208.

Solutions of two river crossing problems: The jealous husbands and the missionaries and the cannibals. 1988, 14pp. A shorter version appeared in Math. Gaz. 73 (No. 464) (Jun 1989) 73-81. With Ian Pressman.

Problems to sharpen the young. An annotated translation of Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes ... attributed to Alcuin of York. Extended and revised version of Oct 1995, slightly extended reprint, Jan 1998, 28pp. A version appeared in Math. Gaz. 76 (No. 475) (Mar 1992) 102-126. With John Hadley. £1.

The history of some of Alcuin's Propositiones . 13pp. Appeared in: Charlemagne and his Heritage 1200 Years of Civilization and Science in Europe : Vol. 2 Mathematical Arts ; Brepols, Turnhout, 1998, pp. 11-29.

Coconuts. The history and solutions of a classic diophantine problem. 4th ed, revised, 20pp + 6pp pictures. Appeared, without the illustrations, in Ganita Bharati (Bull. Ind. Soc. Hist. Math.) 19 (1997) 35-51. JPG images and Word version on the CD.

The life and work of Édouard Lucas. Draft version, 1998, 14pp + 35pp figures.

The problems of Abbot Albert (c1240). Draft version, 1998, 12pp.

The hundred fowls, or, how to count your chickens. 11pp. Unsolved problems. 6pp.

The n-dimensional law of cosines. 6pp. Sum = product sequences. 3pp.

Generalized diagonal sums in Pascal's triangle. 7pp.

Pick's theorem - by Pick. Translation of part of Pick's paper with some comments and bibliography. 5pp.

Medieval and Renaissance recreations in mathematics - slide lecture. Details of the slides and their sources. 3pp.

An historical tour of binary and tours. Extended lecture notes for my talk at the First ECM, Paris , 1992. Recently extended to 16pp with 46 images.

The utility of recreational mathematics. For ECM and University Mathematics Teaching Conference, 1999, 9pp.

    WANTS

Rubik's Cubes with unusual patterns or shapes, especially with advertisements or from the Far East or East Europe . Cube covers. Twiddle. Meba ( USA ). Instant Insanity or Tantalizer puzzles. Avalanche. Game Jugo ( Japan ?). Wit's End ( Hong Kong ). Orion. Chessboard dissections. Richter 'Anchor' stone puzzles. Dissected cubes or dice.