Martin Gardner 's Mathematical Game Thought

Mathematical game is a popular recreational activity of intelligence with math knowledge. So far Martin Gardner, who has held the " Mathematical Games " column in "Scientific American" for 25 years, is the world’s best-known expert at mathematical games. After researching and summarizing the predecessor’s mathematical games, he made some innovation and brought forth new ideas, which gradually developed into his own ideas about mathematical games and had a significant influence on its further development.This paper details the life of Gardner and probes into the causes of his thought, both from objective dimensions including historical background, relationship between math and math education, and from subjective dimensions of his zeal for magic at an early age and devotions to child-related work. Further, by way of example, I generalize Martin Gardner’s idea of mathematical games in six core aspects, based on wide reading of his papers and comparisons with other documents in this field, as follows: mathematical games should unify both knowledge and recreation, both beauty and operability; innovation and growth of mathematical games should keep up with mathematics’ evolution; math puzzle pertains to mathematical games; mathematical games call for extrapolation and related works deserve more rigor.Through a comprehensive understanding of the ideas on Martin Gardner’s idea of mathematical games, I attempt to seek mathematical game’s introduction into mathmatics and mathematical education, and then propose extensively to mathematical textbook compilation, classroom teaching and cultivation of students’ mathematical thinking ability. All these practices and applications of Gardner’s mathematical games thoughts have spreading functions.