King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, the Man Who Saved Geometry

Regular price RM37.00 MYR
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For minds dazzled by geometry’s hidden beauty

This is a wonderful pick if you like science writing that feels both intellectually rich and deeply human. It brings Donald Coxeter to life not just as a mathematician, but as the quiet guardian of a whole way of seeing the world. Readers who enjoy books where ideas connect art, architecture, and everyday life will probably find this especially satisfying and unexpectedly inspiring.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, the Man Who Saved Geometry

Regular price RM37.00 MYR
Unit price
per
Compare to estimated retail price: RM144.00 MYR  
Condition guide

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ISBN: 9780802714992
Authors: Siobhan Roberts
Publisher: Walker Books
Date of Publication: 2006-09-05
Format: Hardcover
Related Collections: Science, History, Biographies & Memoirs
Goodreads rating: 3.82
(rated by 136 readers)

Description

There is perhaps no better way to prepare for the scientific breakthroughs of tomorrow than to learn the language of geometry. —Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe The word "geometry" brings to mind an array of mathematical circles, triangles, the Pythagorean Theorem. Yet geometry is so much more than shapes and numbers; indeed, it governs much of our lives—from architecture and microchips to car design, animated movies, the molecules of food, even our own body chemistry. And as Siobhan Roberts elegantly conveys in The King of Infinite Space, there can be no better guide to the majesty of geometry than Donald Coxeter, perhaps the greatest geometer of the twentieth century. Many of the greatest names in intellectual history—Pythagoras, Plato, Archimedes, Euclid—were geometers, and their creativity and achievements illuminate those of Coxeter, revealing geometry to be a living, ever-evolving endeavor, an intellectual adventure that has always been a building block of civilization. Coxeter's special contributions—his famed Coxeter groups and Coxeter diagrams—have been called by other mathematicians "tools as essential as numbers themselves," but his greatest achievement was to almost single-handedly preserve the tradition of classical geometry when it was under attack in a mathematical era that valued all things austere and rational. Coxeter also inspired many outside the field of mathematics. Artist M. C. Escher credited Coxeter with triggering his legendary Circle Limit patterns, while futurist/inventor Buckminster Fuller acknowledged that his famed geodesic dome owed much to Coxeter's vision. The King of Infinite Space is an elegant portal into the fascinating, arcane world of geometry.
 

For minds dazzled by geometry’s hidden beauty

This is a wonderful pick if you like science writing that feels both intellectually rich and deeply human. It brings Donald Coxeter to life not just as a mathematician, but as the quiet guardian of a whole way of seeing the world. Readers who enjoy books where ideas connect art, architecture, and everyday life will probably find this especially satisfying and unexpectedly inspiring.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.