![]() ![]() A 4-D Rubik’s cube (as seen projected into 3-D-or is that 2-D?). (The pizza of infinite thinness, he says, offers “terrible value for the money” although, compared with other pizzeria fare, is “possibly much easier to digest.”) Readers with modest mathematical backgrounds, however, could get lost now and then, because at times the pace accelerates as he winds up a topic, with the more complex ideas occasionally presented in compact summary form. Another is his dry sense of humor, which is deployed just the right amount here. It’s impressive how often Parker offers a fresh take on topics that are somewhat familiar to a mathematically savvy reader cheek by jowl with the not so familiar this is one of his strong suits. (He had me wondering if his strategies would work for numbers other than five.) ![]() Note that there is no icing on the cake’s bottom. ![]() He also ventures into 3-D-remember the book’s title promises action-packed adventures in 4-D-with a sweet puzzle about cutting a cubical cake into five easy pieces with equal amounts of cake and icing (that is, identical volumes and surface areas). (Curiously there is no mention of what is surely the most common occurrence of this in real life: people idly knotting their chopstick paper sheaths in Chinese restaurants while waiting for their food to arrive.) He shows that if the Greek rules of geometry are modified a little, as they are in origami, formerly impossible things like trisecting any angle suddenly become doable. While considering some of these tricky shapes, Parker suggests some folding fun, showing how to make a pentagon from “a long strip of paper” by tying a knot in it. He encourages readers to use a compass to experiment and offers several simple solutions to the problem. Parker’s philosophy is to present mathematics as “one big game”-and he later reiterates that it’s “a game where you choose the starting rules.” His major goal, he says, is to give readers “the freedom to play with math.” Like Gardner, Parker favors hands-on activities while gently leading his readers from easy to more sophisticated challenges.Ĭhapter Two opens with the problem of slicing into equal-size pieces an idealized circular pizza which is infinitely thin-but some of the pieces must not touch the center. The display resolution on a domino computer display is terrible (Manchester, 2012). Parker also enlivens his chapters with numerous surprises. Like the extensive writings of legendary Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner this book seeks to make mathematics come alive for an intelligent and curious audience by engaging the reader in a lively informal style, and with irresistible invocations to roll up one’s sleeve and experiment. He is also the Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, and his new book, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, is an ambitious and delightful addition to the current age’s plethora of high-quality volumes on recreational mathematics-even if most of the material he covers is focused on 2-D and 3-D. Mathematics popularizer Matt Parker, an Australian based in England, is a self-proclaimed “ standup mathematician” perhaps best known for his numerous contributions to the Numberphile YouTube channel. ![]() Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015 464 pages. Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: A Mathematician's Journey through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More, by Matt Parker. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |