The Mathematical World of Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) by Wilson Robin;Moktefi Amirouche; & Amirouche Moktefi

Author:Wilson, Robin;Moktefi, Amirouche; & Amirouche Moktefi [Wilson, Robin & Moktefi, Amirouche]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780198817000
Publisher: OxfordUP
Published: 2019-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

Using puzzles and games to entertain

Puzzles and games continued throughout Dodgson’s life, mainly as a form of entertainment to amuse himself, his colleagues, and his friends. One of his earliest games, created in 1855 when he was 23 years old and mentioned in his Diaries, was ‘Ways and Means’.1 This was a card game based on auctions and requiring buying and selling using counters, and is principally a word game involving strategy. Dodgson played it with his siblings and visitors: it still exists, but it has never been published.

As we saw in Chapter 1, soon after Dodgson took on the role of Lecturer in Mathematics at Christ Church, he offered to teach ‘sums’ at St. Aldate’s elementary school, just opposite Tom Gate in Oxford. All began well with the first few lessons undertaken in January 1856, but soon Dodgson was describing the lessons as ‘noisy’ and ‘unmanageable.’ He resorted to a few mathematical tricks to gain the attention of the pupils.2 On 5 February he tried the puzzle

of writing the answer to an addition sum, when only one of the five rows has been written: this, and the trick of counting alternately up to 100, neither putting on more than 10 to the number last named, astonished them not a little.

Then on 8 February he showed them ‘the “9” trick of striking out a figure, after subtracting a number from its reverse’, a well-known puzzle that can be traced back to the Middle Ages. These three puzzles, and their explanations, are described in more detail here; none of them was invented by Dodgson.

Such mathematical ‘tricks’ did not succeed in gaining the pupils’ attention in the long term. Dodgson gave up the experiment by the end of February, and never again offered to teach mathematics to young school pupils. However, for the rest of his life the use of mathematical puzzles became a feature of his entertainment when engaging with small groups of young and old. Dodgson was frequently invited to visit the families of his friends and acquaintances, not just his colleagues at the University, and it became a feature of these visits that puzzles, games, and story-telling were on the agenda, continuing an activity that he had established with his own siblings.

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