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May 23, 2010

Martin Gardner, the Mathemagician



This is the first part of a 46-minute documentary on Martin Gardener (via Podblack). It links to the other 4 parts and is well worth your Sunday morning to watch them all.

It's strange because just the other day one of the teachers in the gifted program sent out an interesting little math puzzle through the school email. It immediately made me think of the work of Martin Gardener.  How could it not?  As John Tierney states in this appreciation written this past fall, Gardner "has probably introduced more people to the joys of math than anyone in history."

I also used his wonderful Annotated Alice back in college for a class I took on the Carroll books.  (Yes, I took a whole class just on Alice in Wonderland.)

The Martin Gardner Wikipedia entry.

Martin Gardner 10/21/14 - 5/22/10

Someone on Twitter said the world is a little less smart now, but I disagree.  He shared with us all of his work and inspired so many that it is a bit more smart because of him.