...
Exercise is, perhaps, the best way to keep your body strong, supple, and working at a higher level of performance. The same could be said to be true about your mind.


Perplexing Pattern Problems & Other Puzzles is exercise for your mind. Unfortunately . . .the class leader throws in some routines without demonstrating them, skips too quickly through others, and spends page after page on some of his favorite routines that did little to interest, or exercise, my mind.


Ivan Moscovich "has been designing and inventing inspired puzzles, games, teaching aids. and hands-on science museum exhibits for the past 50 years." A survivor of Auschwitz, a long-time puzzlist, author, and artist; Moscovich was a cofounder of the "Exploratorium" in San Francisco which opened in 1969. His book 1000 Playthinks was perhaps the first, and biggest, commercially successful puzzle book.

He has continued publishing his life's work in a series called the Mastermind Collection which now has a total of 12 books, including Perplexing Pattern Problems....


Featured in this book are numerous styles of puzzles: cat and mice on a chessboard, tile pattern puzzles, anagrams and word strips, a color cryptogram, puzzles exploring the 'four color theorem', optical illusion puzzles, möbius strips, knight tour puzzles, other chess piece puzzles, Leonardo's knot and other knot problems, hex board games, and on and on and on.

It all just seems a little . . .haphazard though. Some 20 pages of puzzles involving chess pieces on a chess board were too much for me. Not my favorite type of puzzle.

While just a scant two pages contain word problems, including only two anagrams. I could not get this one: ESCRUA 'a common six-letter noun.' Help me out here, will ya..?? Leave me a clue in a comment . . .but do not give it away or blurt out the answer. I am trusting you..!!


The very first puzzles of the book illustrate a common problem with many of the puzzles. The reader is told "in each set of four artworks at right, there is only one genuine Mondrian, plus three computer imitations. And then asked: "can you identify the real Mondrians?" But never are we told what a 'genuine Mondrian' might be and how we might begin to identify it or the 'imitations'. Confusing..!!


Many of the puzzles/problems are best done by physically manipulating the pieces of the puzzle. Which require a copy of the page and the patience to cut out the pieces.

A "Knot or Not" puzzle asks the reader to imagine the pictured loosely-knotted rope to be pulled from each end and to decide whether each 'tangle' will form a knot or slip apart unknotted. For some of the sections it is difficult to discern whether the rope is going under or over the other loops. At least one is missing a section of the rope..! Kind of hard to figure that one out..!


Ninety-some pages of puzzles are answered/solved in twenty-some 'answer pages' at the back of the book. Many of the solutions feature a bit more explanation of the puzzle, content that might be more useful in the front of the book.


The Bottom Line
Good for any age, from the 'smart' nine y/o to the ninety y/o Grandpa with the still sharp mind, Perplexing Pattern Problems & Other Puzzles will indeed stimulate your mind. But with a wide variety of books available in this Mastermind Collection it might be worthwhile to leaf through this book and others in the series at the bookstore or library before picking one that might best suit your puzzle-solving needs and wants.



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Certified 'Lean-n-mean' review.


Currently (Nov 2006) in process:

Lean-n-mean Five || ...because you know it is a good thing...


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"Just the facts, ma'am"

Title: Perplexing Pattern Problems & Other Puzzles
Author: Ivan Moscovich
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 128
ISBN #: 1402723458
Ages recommended: 9 to 90, any 'smart' reader..!



Reference websites:

Ivan Moscovich's on-line home
http://www.imaginepuzzles.com/

The Exploratorium: the museum of science, art and human perception
http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Complete Mastermind Collection series of books
http://www.imaginepuzzles.com/?id=-39
 
 

Recommended: Yes