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

Mlodinow, Leonard

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0684865246 ISBN 13 : 9780684865249

Editeur : Free Press, 2002

Synopsis

Euclid'S Window Even the numerically challenged will be entranced by this clear and clever chronicle revealing the role of geometry in scientific revolutions and in the advancement of civilization itself. Full description

A propos du livre

Extrait

Chapter One: The First Revolution

Euclid was a man who possibly did not discover even one significant law of geometry. Yet he is the most famous geometer ever known and for good reason: for millennia it has been his window that people first look through when they view geometry. Here and now, he is our poster boy for the first great revolution in the concept of space -- the birth of abstraction, and the idea of proof.

The concept of space began, naturally enough, as a concept of place, our place, earth. It began with a development the Egyptians and Babylonians called "earth measurement." The Greek word for that is geometry, but the subjects are not at all alike. The Greeks were the first to realize that nature could be understood employing mathematics -- that geometry could be applied to reveal, not merely to describe. Evolving geometry from simple descriptions of stone and sand, the Greeks extracted the ideals of point, line, and plane. Stripping away the window-dressing of matter, they uncovered a structure possessing a beauty civilization had never before seen. At the climax of this struggle to invent mathematics stands Euclid. The story of Euclid is a story of revolution. It is the story of the axiom, the theorem, the proof, the story of the birth of reason itself.

Copyright © 2001 by Leonard Mlodinow

Présentation de l'éditeur

Through Euclid's Window Leonard Mlodinow 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. Here is an altogether new, refreshing, alternative history of math revealing how simple questions anyone might ask about space -- in the living room or in some other galaxy -- have been the hidden engine of the highest achievements in science and technology.
Based on Mlodinow's extensive historical research; his studies alongside colleagues such as Richard Feynman and Kip Thorne; and interviews with leading physicists and mathematicians such as Murray Gell-Mann, Edward Witten, and Brian Greene, Euclid's Window is an extraordinary blend of rigorous, authoritative investigation and accessible, good-humored storytelling that makes a stunningly original argument asserting the primacy of geometry. For those who have looked through Euclid's Window, no space, no thing, and no time will ever be quite the same.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Free Press
• Date d'édition: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0684865246
• ISBN 13: 9780684865249
• Reliure: Broché
• Langue: anglais
• Nombre de pages: 320