Honoring Martin Gardner’s 101st Birthday
Israel’s Celebration of Mind took place at Café Smadar on the campus of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The Davidson Institute of Science Education organized the event. Close to ‘101’ recreational math and puzzle enthusiasts participated and shared their passion in an informal atmosphere, despite the tight security situation. Participants challenged each other with mechanical puzzles, logic puzzles, magic, workshops and more. A unique paper folding method was presented with participants constructing beautiful ‘semicircle’ Platonic and Archimedean Solids.
Yossi Elran opened the second part of the evening with a lecture on Lewis Carroll’s lifework, demonstrating the rationale behind his logic games, and challenging the audience with word puzzles from “Alice in Wonderland”.
Then, the National “Puzzles in two minutes” competition was announced. For more than 2 hours, participants interacted with the audience presenting and solving various puzzles and riddles and sharing ambigrams and word games. Among the presenters were several young ‘whizz’ kids.
The event ended with a taste for more and was highlighted in several media including Israel radio.
We are all looking forward the next puzzles event: the Recreational Math, Puzzles and Games Conference in the Clore Garden of Science, at the Weizmann Institute of Science on the 26th of May 2016.