Page 6 - Boca ViewPointe - August '21

Page 6, Viewpointe August 2021
Book Review

The Shape Of Things He traces the history from the Greeks and the great
Euclid with his theorems and proofs, circles, squares and
Jordan Ellenberg. Shape: The Hidden Geometry of celebrates the aesthetics of mathematics, and its vast array
Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy and Everything of modern applications from card shuffling to the stock
Else. New York: Penguin Press, 2021. market, and even to the superior accuracy in the geometry
Suzanne Simard. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the of scoring tennis to identify the veritable champion
Wisdom in the Forest. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2021 over more limited outcome proofs of the World Series
“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical or Superbowl. Along with a hefty dose of mathematical
ideas.” Albert Einstein concepts like scronch geometry, Fibonacci Sequence,
“What immortal hand or eye/ Dare frame thy fearful Browning motion, Fermat’s Little Theorem. How
symmetry.” William Blake uncovering the mathematics of probabilities and variables
at the turn of the twentieth century have enabled the great
By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers advances in applying mathematic to human behavior. He
gives much notice to a topic that has absorbed us over
Jordan Ellenberg’s After my first semester in college, I switched from math the last year, the mathematics relating to how viruses
engaging book, Shape, major, as I was lured my Composition teacher Marjorie spread by geometric progression, and how cataloguing
demonstrates from its Coogan to become enamored by the art of the Essay, I followed the statistics of the decline can offer an accurate guess of
title description just how that guiding light in both teaching and engaging my life with the pace of its demise. And Professor Ellenberg affords
all-encompassing the words rather than numbers/symbols (though I must confess no lack of illustrative equation which will stump many
subject of Geometry can both my kids focused on math); perhaps things would have a reader, balanced with homely metaphors to establish
be. And then a graph on turned out differently if Jordan Ellenberg had been my teacher his reasonings. The flitting inexplicable movements of
the introductory page that first semester. I still find myself absorbed by the geometry the mosquito, the random walk, encompass the same
confirms the connectivity of shapes, from the wonderful, innovative architecture of probabilities and variables as the path of the mountain
of Geometry from God to the Bauhaus, the two marvelous Franks, Lloyd Wright and climber through the heights and have led to the vast
Euclid to Jewish mysticism and numerology, to Google, Gehry and the multitude shapes of things from Boeing Jets breakthroughs of Artificial Intelligence. And then the
the Electoral College and Gerrymandering. Relegated to to snowflakes. Geometry operates in the sphere of logic and proven suggestion that you need not consume the pot of
the culture of science rather than the humanities, math has proofs while the humanities engage us principally through soup, whereas mathematically speaking, a spoonful will
always had sincere advocates from humanist philosophers empathy. Professor Ellenberg has written a primer for today, accurately render the taste.
like Plato to Spinoza. The reason being man’s continual presenting a compressed history of geometry, the challenges His favorite metaphor is the tree of life, where the
search for demonstrable truths in opposition to being of teaching math, the limitations of rote recitals and tendency proof is reverse engineered to arrive at the theorem. “The
blinded by the appeal of our subjective viewpoints. Such for redundancy and repetition (e.g. “Mathematics is the art of
as determining whether Trump or Biden has done a better giving the same name to different things”). Book Review on page 7
job, not really decipherable by logic, but reenforced
nearly entirely by subjective impressions. Professor
Ellenberg introduces his analysis with two giant figures Boca Pointe Community Association, Inc.
of the nineteenth century, the renowned poet of subjective
experience William Wordsworth who, seeking the sublime 6909 SW 18th St., Suite A120 A special Thank You to our monthly volunteer contributing writers
in life, came to appreciate the unique insight that the study Boca Raton, FL 33433
of geometry can validate. And the autodidact Abraham Office (561) 395-7551 Fax (561) 395-5936 Steve Handwerker Anne Gannon Peter Sachs
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Lincoln, torn by the complexity of guiding political Website: www.bocapointe.com Judith Levy Elyse Weintraub Brown Steven L. Abrams
Helen Karpel
Dr. Ronald J. Meyers
Arthur Dermer
thought whose truths were difficult of being demonstrated, Lisa Sileo Hillary Reynolds Alan Arnold
savored the logic and grace of Euclidean geometry, even Access Control Rayna Becker Oris Martin William A. Gralnick
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