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" Euclid's window : "
Leonard Mlodinow.
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BL
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| Record Number
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704637
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b526826
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| Main Entry
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Mlodinow, Leonard,1954-
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| Title & Author
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Euclid's window : : the story of geometry from parallel lines to hyperspace /\ Leonard Mlodinow.
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| Publication Statement
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New York :: Free Press,, [2001]
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, ©2001
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| Page. NO
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xii, 306 pages :: illustrations ;; 25 cm
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| ISBN
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0684865238
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: 9780684865232
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| Bibliographies/Indexes
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Includes bibliographical references and index.
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| Contents
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Pt. 1: The story of Euclid. The first revolution ; The geometry of taxation ; Among the seven sages ; The secret society ; Euclid's manifesto ; A beautiful woman, a library, and the end of civilization -- Pt. 2: The story of Descartes. The revolution in place ; The origin of latitude and longitude ; The legacy of the rotten Romans ; The discreet charm of the graph ; A soldier's story ; Iced by the Snow Queen -- Pt. 3: The story of Gauss. The curved space revolution ; The trouble with Ptolemy ; A Napoleonic hero ; The fall of the fifth postulate ; Lost in hyperbolic space ; Some insects called the human race ; A tale of two aliens ; After 2,000 years, a face-lift -- Pt. 4: The story of Einstein. Revolution at the speed of light ; Relativity's other Albert ; The stuff of space ; Probationary technical expert, third class ; A relatively Euclidean approach ; Einstein's apple ; From inspiration to perspiration ; Blue hair triumphs -- Pt. 5: The story of Witten. The weird revolution ; Ten things I hate about your theory ; The necessary uncertainty of being ; Clash of the Titans ; A message in a Kaluza-Klein bottle ; The birth of strings ; Particles, schmarticles ; The trouble with strings ; The theory formerly known as strings.
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| Abstract
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Physicist/writer Mlodinow leads us on a journey through five revolutions in geometry, from the Greek concept of parallel lines to the latest notions of hyperspace. Here is a new alternative history of math revealing how simple questions anyone might ask about space have been the hidden engine of the highest achievements in science and technology. The journey goes from Pythagoras through Gauss and Einstein and into the midst of a new revolution in which scientists are recognizing that all the varied and wondrous forces of nature can be understood through geometry--a weird new geometry of extra, twisted dimensions, in which space and time, matter and energy, are all intertwined and revealed as consequences of a deep, underlying structure of the universe. This book, a blend of rigorous, authoritative investigation and accessible, good-humored storytelling, makes an original argument asserting the primacy of geometry.--From publisher description.
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| Subject
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Geometry-- History.
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| Dewey Classification
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516/.009
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| LC Classification
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QA443.5.M56 2001
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