Copernicus Books Dark and Bright Mathematics - Dirk Huylebrouck Kartoniert (TB)

Was it necessary for a 17th century painter to know principles of optics to hide a skull in one of his masterpieces? Is it possible the violent deaths of Roman emperors obey a statistical law? Are there connections between market trends and geometry? How did Islamic artists draw almost perfectly regular nine-sided polygons when these cannot be traced with the use of compasses? Dirk Huylebrouk asks these and other exciting questions in this collection of essays originally written for the science magazine EOS a Dutch equivalent of Scientific American distributed in Belgium and in The Netherl ands. Every chapter can be read independently as some subjects are repeated and not strictly interconnected. Such is the case for instance of the golden section an often-recurring topic in general mathematics. The reader will appreciate the original point of view expressed through each chapter which makes this book stand out against the general information one can find by browsing the generalmedia. The subtly provocative character of some parts is meant to stimulate the reader for further exploration. The book's title itself may already generate surprise. Sure to many mathematics seems to come from hell but the darkness in the title in fact refers to the lugubrious stories about math and skulls murders or World War II. There is also a more down-to-earth part about math and maps money Facebook folding paper shapes in ice and the most earthly yet unsolved math problems. 'Bright mathematics' alludes to Vedic Islam New Age a meta-divine section and is concluded by an interview with a top mathematician who also wrote about the existence of God.