In his essay De Toffoli explains some interesting matters about the recreational mathematics.

 

The combination science-games has certainly ancient roots. As most of the essays of this book demonstrate, the borders between these two activities are very weak and it is difficult to clearly separate them. In the modern men’s life the scientific and ludic activities have become more and more important. Therefore it is natural  that mathematicians, cybernetic experts, scientists, psycohlogists and pedagogues tend to revalue this ancient bound between science and games. The use of games in the schools to make some scientific subjects easyer to learn, or in general, to make the scientific mentality more popular among people (for example in museums, in parks, at the zoo) is a very common use among educators (teachers as well as parents).  At the first International Convention “Scienza e Gioco” this issue was the main subject, comparing researches, and new and interesting experimentations.
So what came out is this book that collects many different essays. It is a very good reading for anyone interested in educational issues, and for anyone that loves to play games and wants to know what is hidden behind them.

The authors: Amadoro, Barlotti, Basile, Bersani, Bovi, Bozzolo, Calvano, Campiglio, Canovi, Caravita, Carlomagno, Casa, Celi, Consoli, Coppini, Dané, De Toffoli, De Varti, Di Palma, Emmer, Fasano, Petroni, Forcella, Garibaldi, Gatto, Giuliani, Goldoni, Hoffmann, Grazzini, Huzita, Izzo, Kustermann, Lanciano, Lando, Lefort, Leoncini, Lorenzoni, Magari, Marconi, Melzi, Mendes France, Menghi, Meneghini, Minichiello, Nardi Rusciani, Pagliari, Pellegrino, Peres, Piperno, Ponzo, Rambaldi, Ravesi, Roncada, Rossi, Rostan, Sacchetti, Salbitani, Savagnone, Sigrist, Spinelli, Staccioli, Staffieri, Tonucci, Ulivi, Volpi, Zampolini.