Edward Taylor Pegg Jr. (born December 7, 1963) is an expert on mathematical

puzzle A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...

s and is a self-described recreational

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. He wrote an online puzzle column called Ed Pegg Jr.'s ''Math Games'' for the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

during the years 2003–2007. His puzzles have also been used by

Will Shortz William F. Shortz (born August 26, 1952) is an American puzzle creator and editor and crossword puzzle editor for ''The New York Times''. Early life and education Will Shortz was born and raised on an Arabian horse farm in Crawfordsville, Indi ...

on the puzzle segment of NPR's ''

Weekend Edition Sunday ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...

''. He was a fan of

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

and regularly participated in

Gathering 4 Gardner Gathering 4 Gardner (G4G) is an educational foundation and non-profit corporation (Gathering 4 Gardner, Inc.) devoted to preserving the legacy and spirit of prolific writer Martin Gardner. G4G organizes conferences where people who have been inspi ...

conferences. In 2009 he teamed up with Tom M. Rodgers and

Alan Schoen Alan Hugh Schoen (born December 11, 1924) is an American physicist and computer scientist best known for his discovery of the gyroid, an infinitely connected triply periodic minimal surface. Professional career Alan Schoen received his B.S. degre ...

to edit two Gardner tribute books. Pegg received a master's degree in mathematics from the

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs The University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) is a public research university in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is one of four campuses that make up the University of Colorado system. As of Fall 2017, UCCS had over 12,400 undergraduate an ...

, writing his thesis on the subject of fair dice. In 2000, he left

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

to join

Wolfram Research Wolfram Research, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational company that creates computational technology. Wolfram's flagship product is the technical computing program Wolfram Mathematica, first released on June 23, 1988. Other products include Wo ...

, where he collaborated on ''

A New Kind of Science ''A New Kind of Science'' is a book by Stephen Wolfram, published by his company Wolfram Research under the imprint Wolfram Media in 2002. It contains an empirical and systematic study of computational systems such as cellular automata. Wolfram c ...

'' (NKS). In 2004 he started assisting

Eric W. Weisstein Eric Wolfgang Weisstein (born March 18, 1969) is an American mathematician and encyclopedist who created and maintains the encyclopedias ''MathWorld'' and ''ScienceWorld''. In addition, he is the author of the '' CRC Concise Encyclopedia of M ...

at Wolfram

MathWorld ''MathWorld'' is an online mathematics reference work, created and largely written by Eric W. Weisstein. It is sponsored by and licensed to Wolfram Research, Inc. and was partially funded by the National Science Foundation's National Science Dig ...

. He has made contributions to several hundred MathWorld articles.MathWorld Contributors: Pegg
/ref> He was one of the chief consultants for ''

Numb3rs ''Numbers'' (stylized as ''NUMB3RS'') is an American crime drama television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 23, 2005, to March 12, 2010, for six seasons and 118 episodes. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton ...

''.

References

External links

*
MathPuzzleEd Pegg Jr.'s ''Math Games''

The Math Behind Numb3rsCBS puzzle
* Ed Pegg Jr.'s entry in th

1963 births 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Cellular automatists Living people Puzzle designers Recreational mathematicians Mathematics popularizers Pegg Edward {{US-mathematician-stub