Edouard Lucas was an excellent mathematician, well known for his studies in the field of Number Theory, for discovering the largest prime number before the invention of computers and for conceiving the Tower of Hanoi, a popular game that computer science students use as a programming exercise. Peiretti explains the tricks to understand it and recovers other simple and intriguing games such as Hamilton's dodecahedron, the testament of the Pasha and the flight of the cranes. Mad About Numbers is a real gold mine, as the author introduces the biography and mathematical problems of the greatest mathematical experts of the 20th century: Walter Rouse Ball, Henry Ernest Dudeney, Piet Hein, Martin Gardner, Richard Phillips Feynman, Roger Penrose, Solomon Wolf Golomb and John Horton Conway. An extraordinary anthology of games with surprising mathematical properties that, along with the stories of their inventors, will keep you hooked for a long time.
