Ian Stewart

Sixteen columns from the French edition of Scientific American feature oddball characters and wacky wordplay in a mathematical wonderland of puzzles and games that also imparts significant mathematical ideas. 1992 edition.

Symmetry is one of the most powerful and wide-ranging of mathematical ideas with recent work on symmetry breaking, when symmetrical patterns are slightly altered or corrupted, throwing up an extraordinary range of applications and natural examples, from the stripes on a tiger's back to the territorial patterns of fish …