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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
This is an American political rant disguised as a maths book. It starts out fine, but the latter half of the book is the author's explanation (albeit mathematical) of what's wrong with the American political system.
challenging
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
I just let this wash over me and didn’t work too hard to understand the math and geometry. It’s written in an accessible enough way that it works for me.
medium-paced
I loved everything about this. Given that I just finished teaching a unit on proofs and there were some explanations in this I want to add to our curriculum, this was perfect for me. Strongest of suggestions.
I loved Jordan Ellenberg's earlier book, [b:How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking|18693884|How Not to Be Wrong The Power of Mathematical Thinking|Jordan Ellenberg|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387726285l/18693884._SY75_.jpg|26542434], 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!
I enjoyed his description of how computers have been taught to play chess. I enjoyed his description of the problem of gerrymandering in states. I had previously thought that, were it not for politics, it would be an easily solved issue. Ellenberg shows why politics is just one of the thorny issues. The geometry, and the issue of fairness is just as difficult! The book describes issues about pandemics, including Covid-19. How can you turn away from a book that talks about politics, eigenvectors, Poincare, neural networks, Euclid and ... and ... Wow! The book does tend to spend a bit too many pages on the subject of gerrymandering, but it is a big problem, and I have never seen such a treatment of the subject.
I enjoyed his description of how computers have been taught to play chess. I enjoyed his description of the problem of gerrymandering in states. I had previously thought that, were it not for politics, it would be an easily solved issue. Ellenberg shows why politics is just one of the thorny issues. The geometry, and the issue of fairness is just as difficult! The book describes issues about pandemics, including Covid-19. How can you turn away from a book that talks about politics, eigenvectors, Poincare, neural networks, Euclid and ... and ... Wow! The book does tend to spend a bit too many pages on the subject of gerrymandering, but it is a big problem, and I have never seen such a treatment of the subject.
challenging
funny
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
This was a little disappointing. It was good for what it was, but I came in expecting it to be as superb as How Not to be Wrong, which blew my mind wih the chains of connections that united many different real-world applications with the underlying mathematics. Here, there were some real-world applications (Covid spread, gerrymandering), and there were some real mathematical underpinnings, but the intermediate steps were not more math, or more real-world applications, but instead lots of toy scenarios. It subtracted a bit from the richness of the content to spend so much time learning about toy games and toy geometries.