Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Absolutely Everything

Ellenberg, Jordan

ISBN 10: 0241413524 / ISBN 13: 9780241413524

Published by Allen Lane, 2021

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Seller Inventory # ERICA82902414135243

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Absolutely Everything
• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241413524
• ISBN 13: 9780241413524
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Book Type: book

About this title

Synopsis

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong, a hugely entertaining exploration of the geometry that underlies our world

How should a democracy choose its representatives? How can you stop a pandemic from sweeping the world? How do computers learn to play chess? 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? The answers to all these questions can be found in geometry.

If you're like most people, geometry is a dimly-remembered exercise, handed down from the ancients, that you gladly left behind in school. It seemed to be a tortuous way of proving some fact about triangles that was obvious to you in the first place. That's not geometry. OK, it is geometry, but only a tiny part, that has as much to do with the modern, fast-moving discipline as conjugating a verb has to do with a great novel.

In Shape, Sunday Times-bestselling author Jordan Ellenberg reveals the geometry underneath some of the most important scientific, political, and philosophical problems we face, from the spread of coronavirus to rise of machine learning. The word 'geometry,' from the Greek, means 'measuring the world.' But geometry doesn't just measure the world - it explains it. Shape shows us how.

About the Author

Jordan Ellenberg is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, and the Sunday Times-bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong, as well as an award-winning novel, The Grasshopper King. He has lectured around the world on his research in number theory, and writes regularly for The New York Times, Washington Post and Wired.