The Liar Paradox AND THE Towers of Hanoi By Marcel Danesi free download

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii

Introduction 1

The Riddle of the Sphinx 5

Alcuin’s River-Crossing Puzzle 27

Fibonacci’s Rabbit Puzzle 47

Euler’s Königsberg Bridges Puzzle 67

Guthrie’s Four-Color Problem 85

Lucas’s Towers of Hanoi Puzzle 105

Loyd’s Get Off the Earth Puzzle 125

Epimenides’ Liar Paradox 141

The Lo Shu Magic Square 159

The Cretan Labyrinth 177

ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS 191

GLOSSARY 237

INDEX 243

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank the many people who have helped me, influenced me, and

critiqued me over the years. First and foremost, I must thank all of the students

I have had the privilege of teaching at the University of Toronto. They

were a constant source of intellectual animation and enrichment. I must

also thank Professor Frank Nuessel of the University of Louisville, for his

unflagging help over many years. I am, of course, grateful to the editors at

John Wiley for encouraging me to submit this manuscript to a publishing

house that is renowned for its interest in mathematics education. It is my

second book for Wiley. I am particularly grateful to Stephen Power, Jeff

Golick, and Michael Thompson for their expert advice, and to Kimberly

Monroe-Hill and Patricia Waldygo for superbly editing my manuscript,

greatly enhancing its readability. Needless to say, any infelicities that this

book may contain are my sole responsibility.

Finally, a heartfelt thanks goes out to my family, which includes Lucy

(my wife), Alexander and Sarah (my grandchildren), Danila (my daughter),

Chris (my son-in-law), and Danilo (my father), for the patience they have

shown me during the research and the writing of this book. I truly must beg

their forgiveness for my having been so cantankerous and heedless of family

duties.