MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Child's Play (1986)
Isaac Asimov
(click on names to see more mathematical fiction by the same author)
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Contributed by "William E. Emba"

Young Griswold uses something he just learned in elementary school math class to solve a minor stumper. (Be warned: the problem has a minor bug. Change "mix" to "nix".)

Published in the January 1986 issue of Ellery Queen Magazine.

(See also 1 to 999 and Ten, two other Griswold stories. Each of these "stories" is really more of a puzzle whose solution is found through some non-mathematical aspects of mathematical notation. A third Griswold story, Getting the Combination is noticeably more mathematical.)

(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Child's Play
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Ten by Isaac Asimov
  2. 1 to 999 by Isaac Asimov
  3. The Math Code by Alex Kasman
  4. The Zero Clue by Rex Stout
  5. Getting the Combination by Isaac Asimov
  6. Mathematical Doom by Paul Ernst
  7. The Puzzling Adventures of Dr. Ecco by Dennis Shasha
  8. Sixty Million Trillion Combinations by Isaac Asimov
  9. Go, Little Book by Isaac Asimov
  10. The Locked House of Pythagoras [P. no Misshitsu] by Soji Shimada
Ratings for Child's Play:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
2.5/5 (2 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
2/5 (2 votes)
..

Categories:
GenreMystery,
Motif
TopicAlgebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory,
MediumShort Stories,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)