Shape - Softcover

Ellenberg, Jordan

 
9780593299739: Shape
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593299736 ISBN 13: 9780593299739
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2021

Synopsis

From the New York Times-bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong―himself a world-class geometer―a far-ranging exploration of the power of geometry, which turns out to help us think better about practically everything

How should a democracy choose its representatives? How can you stop a pandemic from sweeping the world? How do computers learn to play Go, and why is learning Go so much easier for them than learning to read a sentence? 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? All these are questions about geometry. For real.

If you're like most people, geometry is a sterile and dimly remembered exercise you gladly left behind in the dust of ninth grade, along with your braces and active romantic interest in pop singers. If you recall any of it, it's plodding through a series of miniscule steps only to prove some fact about triangles that was obvious to you in the first place. That's not geometry. Okay, it is geometry, but only a tiny part, which has as much to do with geometry in all its flush modern richness as conjugating a verb has to do with a great novel.

Shape reveals the geometry underneath some of the most important scientific, political, and philosophical problems we face. Geometry asks: Where are things? Which things are near each other? How can you get from one thing to another thing? Those are important questions. The word "geometry," from the Greek for "measuring the world." If anything, that's an undersell. Geometry doesn't just measure the world―it explains it. Shape shows us how.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

From the New York Times-bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong―himself a world-class geometer―a far-ranging exploration of the power of geometry, which turns out to help us think better about practically everything

How should a democracy choose its representatives? How can you stop a pandemic from sweeping the world? How do computers learn to play Go, and why is learning Go so much easier for them than learning to read a sentence? 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? All these are questions about geometry. For real.

If you're like most people, geometry is a sterile and dimly remembered exercise you gladly left behind in the dust of ninth grade, along with your braces and active romantic interest in pop singers. If you recall any of it, it's plodding through a series of miniscule steps only to prove some fact about triangles that was obvious to you in the first place. That's not geometry. Okay, it is geometry, but only a tiny part, which has as much to do with geometry in all its flush modern richness as conjugating a verb has to do with a great novel.

Shape reveals the geometry underneath some of the most important scientific, political, and philosophical problems we face. Geometry asks: Where are things? Which things are near each other? How can you get from one thing to another thing? Those are important questions. The word "geometry," from the Greek for "measuring the world." If anything, that's an undersell. Geometry doesn't just measure the world―it explains it. Shape shows us how.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date
2021
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0593299736
ISBN 13 
9780593299739
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781984879059: Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1984879057 ISBN 13:  9781984879059
Publisher: Penguin Press, 2021
Hardcover