Puzzle Me Twice

From mathy mind-benders to eye-fooling illusions, here are 70 perplexing puzzles of every kind. But they all have one key thing in common-a wrong answer that seems so right! In Puzzle Me Twice, you'll have to think-and think again-to overrule your first instinct and uncover the truth. For example:

If a hen and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs do half a dozen hens lay in half a dozen days?*

Bestselling author Alex Bellos wrangles math and physics, logic and wordplay, optical illusions, card games, and more to tie readers' brains in pleasurable knots. It's a merry tour of the many ways our reasoning can go wrong-and how we can be more fool-proof in the future. Puzzle on!

*Four times as many hens, over four times as many days, lay 16 times as many eggs: 1.5 x 16 = 24 eggs.