The Surprise Attack in Mathematical Problems

From the Foreword:

 

In conducting a mathematical column in the Graham Dial over the past twenty-five years, the author found that the most stimulating experience and the greatest reward for his effort came from the "surprise attack" initiated by readers in solving many of the problems.

The year 1879 marked the beginning of one of the longest, bloodiest conflicts of nineteenth-century Latin America. The War of the Pacific pitted Peru and Bolivia against Chile in a struggle initiated over a festering border dispute.