The symmetries of things
"Symmetry is a fundamental phenomenon in art, science, and nature that has been captured, described, and analyzed using mathematical concepts for a long time. Inspired by the geometric intuition of Bill Thurston and empowered by his own analytical skills, John Conway, together with his coauthors, has developed a comprehensive mathematical theory of symmetry that allows the description and classification of symmetries in numerous geometric environments. This richly and compellingly illustrated book addresses the phenomenological, analytical, and mathematical aspects of symmetry on three levels that build on one another and will speak to interested lay people, artists, working mathematicians, and researchers."--Jacket.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
3people
2018–2020years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- "The Symmetries of Things" [1] by John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel, and Chaim Goodman-Strauss.
A fantastic and beautifully illustrated expository work describing symmetry groups such as the 17 wallpaper groups in the plane (think Escher), and other tiling groups in for example the hyperbolic plane. Love the use of orbifold notation as opposed to crystallographic notation.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Symmetries-Things-John-H-Conway/dp/15...
- "The Symmetries of Things" [1] by John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel, and Chaim Goodman-Strauss.
A fantastic and beautifully illustrated expository work describing symmetry groups such as the 17 wallpaper groups in the plane (think Escher), and other tiling groups in for example the hyperbolic plane. Love the use of orbifold notation as opposed to crystallographic notation.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Symmetries-Things-John-H-Conway/dp/15...
- Another very interesting notation/mathematical language from John Conway and William Thurston is for talking about symmetry.
Highly recommend The Symmetries of Things:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1568812205/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?i...
- Been going through Conway's (and Conway related) books since his unfortunate passing. His biography by Siobhan Roberts was a great starting point to ease into it (lots of direct quotes from Conway, which makes it a very easy read that still touches on the important concepts in his work, in his own words; also highly recommend all the Numberphile videos featuring him for that)- then:
Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays is really fun to thumb through.
The Book of Numbers is fantastic and something I would gift to any mathematically curious, somewhat independent, child.
Knuth's Surreal Numbers is also a great read.
Got On Numbers and Games coming in the mail, and am trying to track down a reasonably priced copy of The Symmetries of Things.
I'm tempted to get the Atlas for my collection, but I don't think I'd actually get much from reading it (:
In non-Conway recommendations, The Princeton Companion to Mathematics is a huge brick of a volume, but is a very complete math encyclopedia that I love to keep on my desk and thumb through when I feel distracted. You always end up learning something new.
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