1000 Play Thinks: Puzzles, Paradoxes, Illusions & Games | 
| Author: Ivan Moscovich
Creator: Ian Stewart
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $1.13
You Save: $28.82 (96%)
New (9) Used (48) from $1.13
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 447315
Media: Plastic Comb
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.5
Dimensions (in): 11.7 x 11 x 1
ISBN: 0761118268
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.73
EAN: 9780761118268
ASIN: 0761118268
Publication Date: October 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Extremely light wear. Ships within 24 business hours from SC. Satisfaction Guaranteed! Check-out our extensive Amazon zShop CD, DVD & Book listings.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
...Illusions and Games...."the most wide-ranging, visually appealing, entertaining, gigantic collection of brain teasers"..New York Times -- Open this amazing book to any one of its 400+ oversized pages and instantly you?ll be whisked off to a place you may never wish to return from. -- A place of riddles, puzzles, visual challenges, illusions, art objects and toys ? all powerful enough to bring families together and engage minds dulled by television. A compelling collection. Full color. 420 pages, hardcover.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 awsome book December 27, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the best puzzle books EVER!They are challenging but not to hard. The only problem is 5 days after i got it the binding broke in 4 spots. Still very satisfied
 Fantastic Brain Challenges September 15, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I teach gifted children, and I am always looking for something I can pull out quickly for the one or two students who finish their work early. This is a fantastic resource. In fact, I've had to put it up on a high shelf. Otherwise, my students run into the room and grab it. The puzzles really require thinking and concentration. The variety of puzzles provides something for any type of intelligence (math, verbal, etc.) and any age group. This would also be a good coffee table book for a waiting room, employee lounge, or your own living room. Hours of building new brain cells -- that's a good thing!
 Review of review? September 8, 2005
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I apologize - this may be more of a review of a review than a review of the book itself, but it MAY help your decisions. I've learned enough about the book from these reviews to realize there are some sloppy mistakes and things to watch for.
On the other hand, the review of KC Carrel below (Dec 29, 2003) ALSO contains some SERIOUS mistakes. His/her 2nd paragraph is flat out WRONG. The probability in the problem referred IS 18/36, not 12/21, and her/his discussion of "outcomes" is misleading at best. (By KC's reasoning, a two child family would have a child of each gender one third of the time, instead of 1/2 of the time, as is the case.)
You may choose not to buy the book, but DO NOT make that choice on the strength of this review alone. (I notice that everyone found it helpful and that's scary.)
Good But Loose July 10, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The puzzles/questions in the book are challenging but several times the author is too vague in his description and leaves the reader wondering what exactly the author is asking. Thus, the reader is left with several ways to interpret the puzzle/question. However, it is fun and I would still recommend it to help with critical thinking skills and nurturing creative thinking/ideas.
 Riddled with errors January 9, 2004
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
As I dipped into this book I became more and more annoyed. It has many, many mistakes, of all kinds, in it. Even in presenting well-known puzzles the author manages to make serious errors. Here are a few of the mistakes that I noticed:(Puzzle 307) Morley's theorem is (to quote the late H.S.M. Coxeter) "one on the most surprising theorems in elementary geometry", but Moscovich manages to get the diagram wrong! The triangle which he picks out does not even look equilateral! (Puzzle 772) For the well-known puzzle of passing a cube through a smaller cube the author begins his explanation: "If you hold a cube so that one corner points directly toward you, its edges outline a hexagon. It then becomes obvious that the cube has ample space for a square hole slightly larger than one of its faces." There is even a picture of a hexagon with a square superimposed on it. Although a cube can be passed through a (slightly) smaller cube in this way, it is well known that the optimum solution does not have the edges of the hole parallel to the space diagonal of the cube. (Puzzle 990) Weighing from 1 to 40 grams using weights on one side of a balance only. Moscovich says "you must have the weights 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 grams". Not so. For example, 1, 2, 4, 8, 9 and 16 would be ok. I began to compile a list of errors in this book, but I gave up when I had accumulated over 30, having read, I would estimate, about a quarter of the book. The book has a "Difficulty Index" which should be renamed the "Difficult Index". You have to know the exact title of a puzzle and its level (from 1 to 9), in order to find it again using this index.
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