"It's not just about the puzzles! Cats and Rats also tells us about their historical and mathematical context, and how mathematicians think when they solve problems. Refreshing, challenging (but not too much so), fun, and unusual."
--Sir Ian Stewart, Author of Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities

"A fascinating journey in recreational mathematics and puzzles — touching on many new ideas, trends, and explanations. History, number pyramids, fractals, cellular automata, sudoku, magic squares, and much more are here to delight readers of all ages and backgrounds. Buy this book and feed your brain."
-- Clifford A Pickover, Author of The Math Book and Artificial Intelligence: An Illustrated History

"This is a very interesting and exciting book. It is rare for puzzle books to explain so clearly how a puzzle can have multiple solutions, depending on how one looks at it. Yossi Elran shows that problems may be less straightforward than they appear at first. He also presents numerous new or little-known types of problems which will give pleasure to many readers."
-- David Singmaster, Celebrated recreational mathematician and historian, and Professor Emeritus, London South Bank University

★Hebrew rights sold!
★A journey across history, culture, and science. Six classic puzzles, revealed with all their fascinating "tails"—anecdotes, history, and the mathematicians behind them.
★Yossi Elran's signature "Talmudic" method connects taxis, quantum physics, magic, and movie fractals. A rigorous yet playful way to spark curiosity and train creative thinking.

British–Israeli recreational mathematician, communicator and educator, Yossi Elran explores in-depth six of the most ingenious math puzzles, exposing their long "tails": the stories, trivia, quirks and oddities of their history and, of course, the math and mathematicians behind them. In his unique "talmudic", associative way, Elran shows the hidden connections between Lewis Carroll's "Cats and Rats" puzzle and the math of taxi driving, a number pyramid magic trick and Hollywood movie fractals, and even how packing puzzles are related to COVID-19!

Elran has a great talent for explaining difficult topics — including quantum mechanics, a topic he relates to some original "operator" puzzles — making the book very accessible for all audiences.

With over 40 additional, original puzzles, and touching on dozens of hot math topics, this is a perfect book for math lovers, educators, kids and adults, and anyone who loves a great read.

Yossi Elran is co-author of our bestselling The Paper Puzzle Book, and heads the Innovation Center at the Davidson Institute of Science Education, the educational arm of the world-renowned Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Yossi Elran is a popular British –Israeli mathematics author and speaker, and director of the Innovation Center at the Davidson Institute of Science Education, the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science. He also teaches creative thinking and innovation at the Western Galilee College in Israel.
Over 70,000 people all over the world have enjoyed his popular recreational math Massive Open Online Courses on FutureLearn. He regularly contributes popular math items to Israeli media and for two years wrote a recreational math monthly column for Israel's popular science magazine Galileo, together with his wife Michal, herself a math educator, computer scientist and linguist. He is the co-author of the Paper Puzzle Book together with origami artist Ilan Garibi and puzzler David Goodman. He holds a PhD in theoretical chemistry and has done post-doctoral research in the field of quantum mechanics at the Weizmann Institute and the University of Toronto.

Most importantly, he just loves math puzzles, magic, fun and games and uses these as tools for kids and adults alike to shed the fear of math for those who shudder — and to challenge and enchant those who are nerds — like himself!

Preface
Lewis Carroll's Cats and Rats
Retrolife Puzzles
Number Search, Graeco–Latin Square Puzzles and Miracle Sudokus
Operator Puzzles
From Number Pyramids to Fractals
Puzzles from the Pandemic: Math and COVID-19
Figure Credits