Synopses & Reviews
Molecules, galaxies, art galleries, sculptures, viruses, crystals, architecture, and more: Shaping Space--Exploring Polyhedra in Nature, Art, and the Geometrical Imagination is an exuberant survey of polyhedra and at the same time a hands-on, mind-boggling introduction to one of the oldest and most fascinating branches of mathematics. Some of the world's leading geometers present a treasury of ideas, history, and culture to make the beauty of polyhedra accessible to students, teachers,
Review
Reviews of the first edition: "There is an engaging freshness abouot this book. Shaping Space not onlyprovides an excellent introduction to the subject, but it will suggest new connections to more experienced readers." -Cyril Stanley Smith, Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "There is a goldmine of information here for students (and their teachers)intersted in expanding their views of geometry, architecture, molecular science,history, biology, art, and how scientists thinkabout their thinking. As aneducational specialist, I am constantly searching for material that allowslearners to bridge the gap between what they know about a subject and what the experts know." -Ann Nevin, Ph. D., Educational Psychologist, University of Vermont "As the table of contents shows, several prominent authors have contributed articles on polyhedra and their relations to abstract and applied mathematics and various other disciplines. Many interesting figures and photographs support these articles and the idea of the book. The book encourages mathematicians and nonmathematicians to think about the world of polyhedra and to try to create new objects and theories. This book bridges the gap between research mathematicians and the general public." -J. M. Wills for Mathematical Reviews
Review
From the reviews:"It consists of a collection of essays by different authors about many different aspects related to polyhedra. ... The book is amply illustrated and aiming at a public from 9 till 99. It will be of interest to a very broad public. Form a mathematical side children might be interested in geometrical puzzles and advanced mathematicians may be interested in solving the open problems, and the whole range in between will probably find something interesting of their own taste." (A. Bultheel, The European Mathematical Society, June, 2013)
Synopsis
Here is an exuberant survey of polyhedra that also offers a hands-on introduction to one of the oldest and most fascinating branches of mathematics. It presents a treasury of ideas, history, and culture that detail the beauty of polyhedra.
Synopsis
This second edition is based off of the very popular Shaping Space: A Polyhedral Approach, first published twenty years ago. The book is expanded and updated to include new developments, including the revolutions in visualization and model-making that the computer has wrought.
Shaping Space is an exuberant, richly-illustrated, interdisciplinary guide to three-dimensional forms, focusing on the suprisingly diverse world of polyhedra. Geometry comes alive in Shaping Space, as a remarkable range of geometric ideas is explored and its centrality in our cultre is persuasively demonstrated. The book is addressed to designers, artists, architects, engineers, chemists, computer scientists, mathematicians, bioscientists, crystallographers, earth scientists, and teachers at all levels--in short, to all scholars and educators interested in, and working with, two- and three-dimensinal structures and patterns.
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About the Author
Marjorie Senechal, a world leader in mathematical crystallography, is Louise Wolff Kahn Professor Emerita in Mathematics and History of Science and Technology at Smith College, where she taught from 1966 to 2007. In 2007, she received the College's Honored Professor Award. Professor Senechal is currently Senior Fellow of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute at Smith and co-editor-in-chief of The Mathematical Intelligencer, a cultural journal for the international community of mathematical scientists. Her areas of mathematics research are discrete geometry, tiling theory, and mathematical crystallography. In addition to numerous articles, she is the author or editor of ten books, including Shaping Space, Quasicrystals and Geometry, Long Life to Your Children! (a portrait of High Albania), and American Silk, 1830 - 1930, entrepreneurs and artifacts. In 1978-79, Professor Senechal spent eleven months as an exchange scientist at the Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography in Moscow. Since then, she has made many trips to the Soviet Union and the former Soviet Union to work with colleagues and lecture at conferences, and to attend meetings and site visits on behalf of CRDF. In the summer of 2007 she was an invited speaker at the international conference on Geometry, Informatics, and Theoretical Crystallography of the Nanoworld, held in St. Petersburg. She is also a frequent visitor to Albania. At Smith College, Professor Senechal founded the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute and directed it for its first eight years; she was also a long-time director of the Program in History of Science and Technology and co-founder of the Northampton Silk Project. Her website "A Museum of Ancient Inventions," featuring replicas made by students in her course "Ancient Inventions," has won many awards and was the featured museum in the Schlumberger Ltd.'s 2004 calendar. Marjorie Senechal grew up in Kentucky and received her BS from the University of Chicago, and MS and PhD degrees from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Table of Contents
Preface.- I First Steps.-1 Introduction to the Polyhedron Kingdom. Marjorie Senechal- 2 Six Recipes for Making Polyhedra. Marion Walter; Jean Pedersen; MagnusWenninger; Doris Schattschneider; Arthur Loeb; and Eric Demaine, Martin Demaine and Vi Hart.- 3 Regular and Semiregular Polyhedra. H. S. M. Coxeter.- 4 Milestones in the History of Polyhedra. Joseph Malkevitch.- 5 Polyhedra: Surfaces or Solids? Arthur Loeb.- 6 Dürer's Problem. Joseph O'Rourke.- II Polyhedra in Nature and Art.- 7 Exploring the Polyhedron Kingdom. Marjorie Senechal.- 8 Spatial Perception and Creativity. Janos Baracs.- 9 Goldberg Polyhedra. George Hart.- 10 Polyhedra and Crystal Structures.