Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Absolutely Everything
Ratings8
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings8
Average rating3.4
The international bestseller - a whip-smart, entertaining exploration of the geometry that underlies our world, from the author of How Not to Be Wrong How should a democracy choose its representatives? How can you stop a pandemic from sweeping the world? How do computers learn to play chess? Can ancient Greek proportions predict the stock market? (Sorry, no.) What should your kids learn in school if they really want to learn to think? The answers to all these questions can be found in geometry. If you're like most people, geometry is a dimly-remembered exercise, handed down from the ancients, that you gladly left behind in school. It seemed to be a tortuous way of proving some fact about triangles that was obvious to you in the first place. That's not geometry. OK, it is geometry, but only a tiny part, that has as much to do with the modern, fast-moving discipline as conjugating a verb has to do with a great novel. In Shape, Sunday Times-bestselling author Jordan Ellenberg reveals the geometry underneath some of the most important scientific, political, and philosophical problems we face, from the spread of coronavirus to rise of machine learning. The word 'geometry,' from the Greek, means 'measuring the world.' But geometry doesn't just measure the world - it explains it. Shape shows us how.
Reviews with the most likes.
Love Song To Geometry - And A Look At How It Is Truly Everywhere. This is a mathematician showing just how prevalent geometry is in our every day lives - and why modern math classes tend to ruin it for most people. As a mathematics oriented person myself (got one math-derived degree, very nearly got two others almost at the same time, former math teacher, current active software developer), this was fairly easy to follow - Ellenberg mentions some advanced concepts without actually showing many of them, though there is more actual equations in here than some might like in a “popsci” level book. Thanks to Ellenberg's explanations of said equations and concepts, this should be an easy enough follow for most anyone. And he really does do a great job of showing how even advanced ideas really do come down to the most basic principles - just applied in particularly interesting ways. Indeed, the only real critique I have here is that when Ellenberg gets off the math specifically and into more political and social commentary - even when ostensbily using the math as a shield - it gets much closer to “Your Mileage May Vary” level. Overall, those moments weren't quite pervasive enough nor did they stray far enough from the central premise to warrant dropping a star, and thus the book maintains the full five stars that all books start with for me. Very much recommended.
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