FAMOUS PEOPLE in MATHEMATICS
MARTIN GARDNER
Martin Gardner was born on 21 October 1914. He was a famous American recreational maths writer with over 60 books on maths puzzles. His most famous article in Scientific American was on trihexaflexagons. These were discovered by Arthur Stone in 1939, during WW2, when his new American paper would not fit in his English binder so he cut off the ends of the paper and began folding them into different shapes. A trihexaflexagon has 3 hexagonal faces, 1of which is always hidden. Just magical. It is made from ten equilateral triangles folded from a strip of paper. It can be flipped inside out and revealing just a front and back face each time. Gardner was a legend in 20th century recreational mathematics and helped make people all over the world become interested in solving maths puzzles. You can read more about him at http://www.martin-gardner.or
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