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A fascinating exploration of the pentagon and its role in various
cultures The pentagon and its close cousin, the pentagram, have
inspired individuals for the last two and half millennia, from
mathematicians and philosophers to artists and naturalists. Despite
the pentagon's wide-ranging history, no single book has explored
the important role of this shape in various cultures, until now.
Richly illustrated, Pentagons and Pentagrams offers a sweeping view
of the five-sided polygon, revealing its intriguing geometric
properties and its essential influence on a variety of fields.
Traversing time, Eli Maor narrates vivid stories, both celebrated
and unknown, about the pentagon and pentagram. He discusses the
early Pythagoreans, who ascribed to the pentagon mythical
attributes, adopted it as their emblem, and figured out its
construction with a straightedge and compass. Maor looks at how a
San Diego housewife uncovered four previously unknown types of
pentagonal tilings, and how in 1982 a scientist's discovery of
fivefold symmetries in certain alloys caused an uproar in
crystallography and led to a Nobel Prize. Maor also discusses the
pentagon's impact on many buildings, from medieval fortresses to
the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Eugen Jost's superb illustrations
provide sumptuous visual context, and the book's puzzles and mazes
offer fun challenges for readers, with solutions given in an
appendix.
If you've ever thought that mathematics and art don't mix, this
stunning visual history of geometry will change your mind. As much
a work of art as a book about mathematics, Beautiful Geometry
presents more than sixty exquisite color plates illustrating a wide
range of geometric patterns and theorems, accompanied by brief
accounts of the fascinating history and people behind each. With
artwork by Swiss artist Eugen Jost and text by math historian Eli
Maor, this unique celebration of geometry covers numerous subjects,
from straightedge-and-compass constructions to intriguing
configurations involving infinity. The result is a delightful and
informative illustrated tour through the 2,500-year-old history of
one of the most important branches of mathematics.
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Paperback
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R398
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Discovery Miles 3 300
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