Ben Orlin - Math Games with Bad Drawings: 75 1/4 Simple, Challenging, Go-Anywhere Games―And Why They Matter

LETS BEGIN WITH a riddle. What, exactly, distinguishes you from a chimpanzee?

Answer: The chimpanzee began as a baby chimp, then grew up, whereas you began as a baby chimp, then stayed that way.

Seriously, look at yourself: furless skin, tiny jaw, enormous rounded craniumthese are traits that our ape cousins lose as they age, yet you have stubbornly kept. No judgment; Ive done it too. We humans retain childlike traits into adulthood, clinging to what biologist Stephen Jay Gould called eternal youth. The technical term is neoteny, and among primates, its kind of our calling card. The best part is that we dont just look like baby chimps. We also act like them: mimicking, exploring, puzzlingin a word, playing.

That, my baby-faced friends, is how we became the geniuses of the primate order. Thats how we built our pyramids, left our footprints on the moon, and recorded our multiplatinum album Abbey Road. Not by outgrowing foolishness, but by refusing to. The secret to our brilliance is that we never stop learning, and the secret to our learning is that we never stop playing.

So, lets play, shall we?

What do you need?

1. A few common household items. Ive strived for games that require only pen and paper, though for some, youll need a bit more. The details are spelled out in each chapter, and summarized in tables in the Conclusion. (Note that dice can easily be simulated; search roll dice online.)

Games counted under their hardest-to-find material. V ARIATIONS & R ELATED G AMES not included. Offer void where prohibited by law. Though if youre someplace where the laws prohibit games, youve got way bigger problems.

2. Playmates. Plenty of math books are for solo play. Not this one. I wrote it during a year of pandemic-induced social distancing, and not surprisingly, the result is a love letter to social togetherness. Thus, except for a few one-player games, youll need companions. Also, although Ive written this book for an audience of old baby chimps like myself, a 10-year-old could enjoy almost every game, and many are suitable for those as young as six.

3. A healthy dose of neoteny. Many animals display flexibility and play in childhood, wrote Stephen Jay Gould, but follow rigidly programmed patterns as adults. As a math teacher, I admit that our math lessons often seem designed for some other animal, one of those rigid pattern-followers. Perhaps termites. No surprise that such lessons capture our thinking at its worst: paralyzed, plodding, anxious. For this book, forget all that and summon your true nature, your inner baby.

Whats the goal? To bring out the best in human thought.

What are the rules?

1. This book tackles a specific and uniquely human kind of play: games, also known as play with rules. They range from those with myriad rules (like Monopoly) to those with just one (like the floor is lava), from occasions of merciless competition (like Monopoly) to ones of profound collaboration (like the floor is lava), from the worst artifacts of human culture (like Monopoly) to the best (like the floor is lava).

For this book, I have sought games with simple, elegant rules that give rise to rich, complex play. You know the saying: a minute to learn, a lifetime to master.

2. What do you mean by mathematical games? Good question. I first fielded it from Vito Sauro, one of Minnesotas friendliest experts in tabletop gaming. Almost every board game, he pointed out, consists of a thematic skin over a mathematical skeleton. Would my book attempt to cover all games that have ever existed?

No, no, I told Vito. A mathematical game, by my definition, is one that makes you go Mmm-mmm, thats mathy.

Vito considered this (1) a total non-answer, and (2) fairly satisfactory. In any case, Ive tried to compile timeless games of logic, strategy, and spatial reasoning. My three criteria were: (1) fun, (2) easy to play, and (3) mathematically thought-provoking.

3. The book has five sections: Spatial Games, Number Games, Combination Games