Euclid's Window: A Journey Through the History of Geometry and Physics

[Mentat]

Euclid's Window, by Leonard Mlodinow, is the best layman text, that touches on the deepest issues of modern mathematics and theoretical physics, that I've ever read.

Through use of excellent analogies and some humor, Mlodinow takes the reader through the history of geometry (from the ancient Egyptians and Pythagoras, to Euclid and his Elements, to Descartes and the first graphs, to Gauss and the non-Euclidean revolution, up to Einstein's Relativity and then beyond it, to the Superstring Theory and its potential as the theory of everything). Oh, and, by the way, he almost never uses an equation.

You don't want to miss this book, whether you are a total layman who needs to take his shoes off to count more than twenty, or a PhD in mathematics, it is well worth your time.

 

[Evo]

Thanks Mentat, sounds like something I'd enjoy!

 

[flashgordon]

I only skimmed the book too many months ago . . .

. . . I'd recommend Morris Kline's "Mathematics: The End of Certainty."

Or even E.T. Bell's "The Development of Mathematics."

Still, it is exciting to find a place with over seven thousand members, and probably at least 95% of them are either real science/engineering guys or have read books like "Euclids Window." I wish I had the time to read every such book(believe me, there are lots of those books), but I think I've read a pretty good group of them and now need to get through some much more technical such books.

 

[Kalimaa23]

You don't want to miss this book, whether you are a total layman who needs to take his shoes off to count more than twenty, or a PhD in mathematics, it is well worth your time.

Suppose you fall into more than one category...

 

[Mentat]

Suppose you fall into more than one category...

 

[rick1138]

Euclid's Window is a fun read, I think it has one of the best expositions of Witten's work among popular science books.