Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Absolutely Everything

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The Read Manchester campaign is run in partnership by Manchester City Council and the National Literacy Trust, and promotes reading for enjoyment through a programme of activities and events. Councillor Rosa Battle, Manchester City Council's lead member for schools, said:"It's fantastic that we've been able to bring the BookBench trail to Manchester. The completed benches look amazing and really capture the energy and creativity of the city. If my grandma had wheels, she'd be a wagon" -- comparing this to the hypothetical incorrect statistical practice of "if we only consider xyz then we find abc"

The book is loosely related by the theme of geometry. It isn't only about plane geometry, though, and has fun explorations of topology, random walks (the mathematical kind), neural networks via gradient descent, networks/graph theory, and even a chapter on the math of gerrymandering. That was not an all-comprehensive list, either. Mathematics is a fundamentally imaginative enterprise, which draws on every cognitive and creative ability we have. p. 110 This is a difficult book to rate, but is in the 3-4 range for me. The issue is that of the difficulty of the material itself. I don't believe the book makes claims of being accessible to non-mathematicians, and it certainly reads well in a general sense, but the material covers so many aspects of geometry that it is very difficult to stay with it. Ellenberg's other book that I have read, How Not To Be Wrong, is much more accessible overall. See the dots on the ladybug wings or the triangle of the green moth. Next, look at the diamond made by a devil ray. Although it’s a short board book, it’s a beautiful natural tribute to what you can discover in nature.Serious mathematics at its intriguing, transporting best . . . [a] humorous, anecdotally rich dive into numerous mathematical theories.” —Kirkus I loved Jordan Ellenberg's earlier book, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking, and it was a hard act to follow. But not for Ellenberg, as this book is also great. While the title, "Shape" implies that this book is about geometry--and it is--it is also about so much more. This book shows how mathematics is applicable to just about everything under the sun. And Ellenberg manages to make it all so fascinating! The sheer depth at which he covers an incredibly diverse range of topics is staggering. This is the type of book that I love! Ellenberg is a professor of mathematics, so he certainly knows what he is talking about! Origami-based “Book” shaped three-dimensional electrochemical paper microdevice for sample-to-answer detection of pathogens Markov chains were discovered because and atheist Markov wanted to disprove the free-will proof that his super religious peer Nekrasov had formulated (the proof hinged on the assumption that to have stable long term probability the agents in the system must be independent)

Welcome to the unique intersection of fashion and literature with our handcrafted book crossbody bags. These stylish accessories not only reflect your unique aesthetic but also manifest your deep-rooted love for classic literature. With a versatile range designed to complement any outfit, our book bags offer a fashionable nod to your favourite authors and books. They're not just bags; they're a celebration of personal style and timeless tales! Avid Readers Sally-Ann Wilkinson, director of Wild in Art, added:“We’re delighted to be working with Manchester City Council and the National Literacy Trust to bring BookBenches to the city.He focuses a lot on the history of geometry and that was mostly boring. Lots of names that I will never remember.

a connected graph stays connected only if the connections at each point >=2, interesting to think what this says about friendships and networks Shape" is the successor of Ellenbergs' popular work "How Not to Be Wrong". Whereas the earlier book showed how to use mathematical thinking in everyday life (and win the lottery), this book aims to show that geometry is absolutely everywhere. I am no mathematician, but I have the feeling that Ellenberg considers absolutely everything geometry. There is a chapter on Euclid, about Euclid, the topology of straws and pants, Gerrymandering but also about random walks, graphs game theory, the uncertainty principle, etc. Nothing much connects the chapters, so the whole style felt meandering.Did you know Einstein played violin on the street for extra cash? Or that Gauss was often only a few steps ahead of his debts? Or that Wordsworth (the poet) and Lincoln (the politician) were excellent mathematicians? Can you even imagine the last president read Euclid for fun!? Oh and my favorite bit -- Karl Pearson, the correlations guy, apparently looked like a Greek God. He also taught his class the law of large numbers by throwing 10,000 pennies on the floor and making students count the heads. I remember the dreary day I was taught that theorem. Yikes. Maybe this is how we should teach math! Shape is University of Wisconsin math professor and bestselling author Ellenberg’s far-ranging exploration of the power of geometry, which turns out to help us think better about practically everything. How should a democracy choose its representatives? How can you stop a pandemic from sweeping the world? How do computers learn to play Go, and why is learning Go so much easier for them than learning to read a sentence? If you're like most people, geometry is a sterile and dimly remembered exercise you gladly left behind in the dust of ninth grade, along with your braces and active romantic interest in pop singers. If you recall any of it, it's plodding through a series of miniscule steps only to prove some fact about triangles that was obvious to you in the first place. That's not geometry. Okay, it is geometry, but only a tiny part, which has as much to do with geometry in all its flush modern richness as conjugating a verb has to do with a great novel. The ultimate reason for teaching kids to write a proof is not that the world is full of proofs. It’s that the world is full of non-proofs, and grown-ups need to know the difference. It’s hard to settle for a non-proof once you’ve really familiarized yourself with the genuine article. A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.