Euclid's Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace

Mlodinow, Leonard

ISBN 10: 0141009098 / ISBN 13: 9780141009094

Published by Penguin, 2007

About this Item

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned.

Seller Inventory # rev9043265316

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Euclid's Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace
• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0141009098
• ISBN 13: 9780141009094
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Through "Euclid's Window", Leonard Mlondinow brilliantly and delightfully leads us on a journey through five revolutions in geometry, from the Greek concept of parallel lines to the latest notions of hyperspace. This new, refreshing, alternative history of maths reveals how simple questions anyone might ask about space in the living room or in some other galaxy have been the hidden engine of science's highest achievements.

Review

"How do you know where you are?" asks Leonard Mlodinow in his charming mathematical history, Euclid's Window. This question and others about space and time grew out of simple observations of the environment by a select group of thinkers whose lives and brains Mlodinow dissects. Starting with Euclid, geometry has flowed out over the centuries, describing the universe, and, Mlodinow argues, making modern civilization possible.

This is not just a history of geometry--it's a timeline of reason and abstraction, with all the major players present: Euclid, Descartes, Gauss, Einstein, and Witten, each represented by a minibiography.

Lots of examples pepper the narrative to help readers achieve their own "eureka!" And it's impossible not to be staggered at the mathematical feats of these geniuses, accomplished as many of them were in the absence of anything but observation and intense thought. Each story builds satisfactorily on the last, until at the end of this delightful book, one has a sense of having climbed a peak of understanding.

A working knowledge of basic geometry is helpful but not essential for enjoying Euclid's Window, and Mlodinow's chatty style lends itself remarkably well to explaining these deep and revolutionary concepts. --Adam Fisher