The riddle of Scheherazade, and other amazing puzzles, ancient & modern

688 Pages·1997·1.57 MB·English

by  Smullyan

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF,
INC.
Copyright © 1997 by Raymond
Smullyan
All rights reserved under
International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published
in the United States by Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc., New York, and
simultaneously in Canada by
Random House of Canada Limited,
Toronto. Distributed by Random
House, Inc., New York.
http://www.randomhouse.com/
Portions of this work were
originally published in Discover
magazine.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data
Smullyan, Raymond M.
The riddle of Scheherazade, and
other amazing puzzles, ancient and
modern / by Raymond Smullyan.—
1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-81983-3
1. Mathematical recreations. 2.
Logic puzzles. I. Title.
QA95.S4997 1997
793.7′4—dc21 96–51505 CIP
v3.1
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
BOOK ONE The Grand Question of
Scheherazade
I The Source
II In Which Is Related How
Scheherazade Entertained the King on
the Thousand-and-Third Night
III Wherein Is Related How
Scheherazade Further Entertained the
King on the Thousand-and-Fourth
Night
IV The Thousand-and-Fifth Night, in
Which Scheherazade Relates Some
Puzzles of Ancient Origin
V The Thousand-and-Sixth Night, in
Which Scheherazade Gives the King
Some Problems in Probability
VI The Thousand-and-Seventh Night,
in Which Scheherazade Relates Some
Exploits of Some of Ali Baba’s Forty
Thieves
VII In Which Scheherazade Relates
Some More Puzzles on This
Thousand-and-Eighth Night and
Concludes with a Clever
Mathematical Observation
VIII In Which Is Related
Scheherazade’s Wondrous Account of
the Mazdaysians and Aharmanites
IX The Thousand-and-Tenth Night, in
Which Scheherazade Gives a Further
Account of the Mazdaysians and
Aharmanites
X In Which Is Related How
Scheherazade Entertained the King
with Some Special Items on This
Thousand-and-Eleventh Night
XI Scheherazade’s Puzzles and
Metapuzzles of the Thousand-and-
Twelfth Night
XII The Thousand-and-Thirteenth
Night, in Which Scheherazade Relates
the Story of Al-Khizr
XIII The Grand Question!
BOOK TWO From Scheherazade to
Modern Logic
XIV Coercive Logic
XV Right- and Left-Handed Coercion
XVI The Ultimate in Coercive Logic
XVII Variable Liars
XVIII Chinese or Japanese?
XIX Oron and Seth
XX Which Personality?
XXI Oh No!
XXII A Mixed Bag: Some Logic Tricks
and Games