Gary Antonick ( ; born February 11, 1963) is an American journalist and recreational mathematician who for many years wrote a puzzle-based column called "Numberplay" for the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Education and career

Antonick has a BS in Engineering from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

and an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

.Gary Antonick
Stanford University Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute In 2019, he taught a course at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, titled ''Math in the Wild: Using Mathematical Thinking to Solve Messy Real-World Problems'', alongside

Keith Devlin Keith James Devlin (born 16 March 1947) is a British mathematician and popular science writer. Since 1987 he has lived in the United States. He has dual British-American citizenship.

Numberplay

From December 2009 to October 2016 Antonick wrote the puzzle themed "Numberplay" column for ''The New York Times''.
A Numberplay Farewell
' Gary Antonick, New York Times, October 31, 2016. Outgoing writer of The Times’s Numberplay column, shares a lesson learned from seven years of puzzle-solving. The puzzles generally involved math or logic problems.About numberplay, the puzzle suite for math lovers of all ages
by Gary Antonick, The New York Times, April 8, 2013 They came from many sources, and many were descended from columns by the celebrated

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

columnist

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing magic, scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writin ...

.
Martin Gardner’s Impromptu
' By Gary Antonick, New York Times, November 30, 2015 He often wrote about Gardner and considered him to be the leading popularizer of

recreational mathematics Recreational mathematics is mathematics carried out for recreation (entertainment) rather than as a strictly research-and-application-based professional activity or as a part of a student's formal education. Although it is not necessarily limited ...

.
Martin Gardner’s The Monkey and the Coconuts
' "Martin Gardner, the American science and math writer who popularized the notion of recreational mathematics." in Numberplay The ''New York Times'':, October 7, 2013 Conferences called Gathering 4 Gardner are held every two years to celebrate Gardner's legacy, and Antonick has twice spoken at these events.
The Neuroscience of Curiosity
' video by Gary Antonick, G4G Celebration published on Oct 22, 2014
Projectile on an Incline-No Calculation
' video by Gary Antonick, G4G Celebration, Published on Jul 19, 2018 He also supports the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival. Among the many classic problems of recreational mathematics featured in "Numberplay" are The

Prisoner's Dilemma The prisoner's dilemma is a game theory thought experiment involving two rational agents, each of whom can either cooperate for mutual benefit or betray their partner ("defect") for individual gain. The dilemma arises from the fact that while def ...

, The Two Child Problem, The

Monty Hall Problem The Monty Hall problem is a brain teaser, in the form of a probability puzzle, based nominally on the American television game show ''Let's Make a Deal'' and named after its original host, Monty Hall. The problem was originally posed (and solved ...

, The Monkey and the Coconuts, The Two-cube Calendar, and The Zebra Puzzle. Sometimes "Numberplay" was used to celebrate other mathematicians such as Paul Erdős,
The Improbable Life of Paul Erdős
' in Numberplay The ''New York Times'', March 25, 2013 or simply to report a breakthrough in mathematics or game theory.
Google Artificial Intelligence Beats Expert at Go Game
' by Gary Antonick, February 1, 2016 "Numberplay" columns led to five sequences originated by Antonick being listed in the

On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS) is an online database of integer sequences. It was created and maintained by Neil Sloane while researching at AT&T Labs. He transferred the intellectual property and hosting of the OEIS to th ...

(OEIS)Sequences originated by Gary Antonick

English Channel Swim

On August 8, 1988, Antonick swam the English Channel, starting from Dover, England, and finishing in France 8 hours and 46 minutes later.

References

External links

list of articles by Gary Antonick in the New York Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonick, Gary 1963 births Living people University of Michigan School of Education alumni Harvard Business School alumni Recreational mathematicians Writers from Detroit Journalists from Detroit Mathematics popularizers