Recreational Mathematics

The collection includes five books by the remarkable science popularizer Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (1882–1942) — "Recreational Arithmetic", "Recreational Algebra", "Recreational Geometry", "Recreational Mathematics" and "Living Mathematics". These works introduce readers to the world of scientific knowledge, help cultivate an interest... in exact sciences, and stimulate curiosity for independent creative pursuits. The 472 illustrations in these books were created (in close collaboration with Perelman himself) by the staff artist of the Leningrad publishing house "Vremya", Yuri (Georgy) Dmitrievich Skal'din (1891–1951), the younger brother of the writer Alexei Dmitrievich Skal'din, who was able to beautifully illustrate the most complex scientific phenomena and experiments.
Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (1882–1942) was neither a physicist, nor a mathematician, nor an astronomer — he graduated from the Forestry Institute in St. Petersburg (now SPbGLTU). He was neither a writer nor an educator — but he corresponded with leading scientists and writers around the world, worked on the creation of new textbooks and problem sets in mathematics and physics, delivered more than two thousand popular lectures, wrote about a hundred popular science books, and countless magazine articles. He did not make any scientific discoveries or inventions — but he participated in the development of the project for the first Soviet anti-hail rocket, was the initiator of the introduction of daylight saving time in our country, one of the founders of the genre of popular science literature, and the author of the term "science fiction". He did not hold any scientific degrees or titles — but grateful readers invariably addressed him in their letters as "Dear Professor!". This was all because in his writings, Yakov Isidorovich presented complex scientific problems in his own unique style, with astonishing clarity and visibility; even in the driest and most boring topics, he could find bright, captivating features, making them extremely understandable even for an unprepared reader. It is no surprise that the books of the "people's professor of the Soviet Union" have gone through dozens of reprints, have been translated into many languages, from English to Hindi, and their total circulation has reached tens of millions of copies to date. This collection includes five of Perelman's books — "Recreational Arithmetic", "Recreational Algebra", "Recreational Geometry", "Recreational Mathematics", and "Living Mathematics". These works introduce readers to the world of scientific knowledge, help cultivate an interest in exact sciences, and stimulate curiosity for independent creative pursuits. In editing, we only replaced some outdated numbers, made individual additions and notes, but, as far as possible, preserved the spirit of the time when these articles were created — when an airplane was more often referred to as an aeroplane, Albert Einstein was a modest employee of the Patent Office, and the English writer Herbert Wells delighted readers with his new works. The scientific content of Yakov Isidorovich's articles has been selected in such a way that it can never become outdated.