Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else
... unreasonably entertaining ... Ellenberg’s preference for deploying all possible teaching strategies gives Shape its hectic appeal; it’s stuffed with history, games, arguments, exercises ... For all Ellenberg’s wit and play [...] the real work of Shape is in codifying that geometry on the page.
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To Ellenberg, geometry is like poetry: able to mold and delight the human mind. But it is also deeply practical — poetry you can use to build houses. Art, then, as well as science: With geometry you can have your cake and cut it into symmetric pieces too ... Ellenberg’s skill as a storyteller, combined with a natural ability to spot otherwise obscure connections, enables him to capitalize on geometry as math’s gateway drug ... Ellenberg gives his inner tour guide free rein and geometry becomes the shortest narrative path between any two seemingly disparate mathematical points. It makes for a deeply enjoyable and insightful book.
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Ellenberg introduces readers to a bevy of relatable mathematical concepts ... Also eye-opening are the author’s discussions of pandemics ... Ellenberg offers an engrossing discussion of how geometry can help in the fight against gerrymandering. Serious mathematics at its intriguing, transporting best.
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