Reviews from Amazon

Beyond the third dimension

Some people claim to be able to visualise space with more than 3 dimensions, but for most of us the fourth dimension represents inaccessibility and mystery. This book explores the progress which has been made in reducing the mystery by showing how higher dimensions may be visualised. There is the usual comparison with Flatlanders visualising three dimensions, but the book also looks at other ways of presenting higher dimensions such as contour maps, 'unfolded' versions of polytopes (higher dimensional polyhedra) and perspective drawings. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a better grip on what higher dimensions actually mean.

I have made my own attempts at visualising the 4th dimension, and I had hoped that this book would help me with this task. Unfortunately, although it does well at reporting what has been achieved in the subject, I didn't feel that it did enough to help the readers themselves to visualise higher dimensions. One of the problems with covering many different areas is that none is covered in much detail. For instance there is a short example concerned the presentation of multidimensional data, but not much in the way of practical advice for those with similar data to deal with. So the book is fine if you want an educational but easy to read work with plenty of impressive pictures, but if you want advice on how to create such pictures yourself then you should look elsewhere.

Amazon.com info

Hardcover 210 pages
ISBN: 0716750252
Salesrank: 897706
Weight:1.95 lbs

Published: 1990 Scientific American Library

Marketplace:New from $10.80:Used from $0.30

Buy from Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk info

Hardcover 210 pages
ISBN: 0716750252
Salesrank: 1821701
Weight:1.95 lbs

Published: 1990 Scientific American Library

Marketplace:New from £25.87:Used from £2.01

Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.ca info

Hardcover 210 pages
ISBN: 0716750252
Salesrank: 1201515
Weight:1.95 lbs

Published: 1990 W H Freeman & Co

Marketplace:New from CDN$ 39.77:Used from CDN$ 3.32

Buy from Amazon.ca

Product Description
This work investigates ways of picturing and understanding dimensions below and above our own. What would a two-dimensional universe be like? How can we even attempt to picture objects of four, five or six dimensions? Such are the questions examined in this text.

Product Description

This work investigates ways of picturing and understanding dimensions below and above our own. What would a two-dimensional universe be like? How can we even attempt to picture objects of four, five or six dimensions? Such are the questions examined in this text.

Great Book *****
Beyond the Third Dimension: Geometry, Computer Graphics, and Higher Dimensions (Scientific American Library Series)

Great Book *****

Beyond the Third Dimension: Geometry, Computer Graphics, and Higher Dimensions (Scientific American Library Series)

Geometrical Illustrations of Fourth Dimension ***
Living in a world of three dimensional space makes it hard for us to conceive fourth dimension and it gets even harder to visualize the fifth and higher dimension. Superstring theorists predict the existence of 10th and 26th dimensions in universe; hence it seems reasonable for many of us to understand how it would be like to be living in fourth dimension. Thomas Banchoff is one of the leaders in the study of higher dimension using computer graphics; he has illustrated fourth dimension using basic geometrical approach such as slicing the spatial dimension, observing the shadows of structures, comparing the folded and foldout versions of polytops and description of configuration of spaces. This book is useful for someone who appreciates geometry, but for a reader who likes to visualize the fourth dimension he/she may read Clifford Pickover's Surfing through Hyperspace, which does a better job in illustrating fourth dimension.

Geometrical Illustrations of Fourth Dimension ***

Living in a world of three dimensional space makes it hard for us to conceive fourth dimension and it gets even harder to visualize the fifth and higher dimension. Superstring theorists predict the existence of 10th and 26th dimensions in universe; hence it seems reasonable for many of us to understand how it would be like to be living in fourth dimension. Thomas Banchoff is one of the leaders in the study of higher dimension using computer graphics; he has illustrated fourth dimension using basic geometrical approach such as slicing the spatial dimension, observing the shadows of structures, comparing the folded and foldout versions of polytops and description of configuration of spaces. This book is useful for someone who appreciates geometry, but for a reader who likes to visualize the fourth dimension he/she may read Clifford Pickover's Surfing through Hyperspace, which does a better job in illustrating fourth dimension.

Concise Well-Written And Beautifully Illustrated Work *****
Mathematical ideas, when first learned, tend to undergo a curious inner transformation. At the outset, some tangible representation is necessary to effectively latch onto the concept. Thereafter, the symbolic elaboration using the language of mathematics is sufficient to encompass not only that particular figure, but limitless others like it as well. The underlying geometry is still there, but there are simply too many possibilities to illustrate in any amount of time. The first step of illustrating must be manifest, using ink or chalk or sand or digital pixels. In this way, even the finest geometric illustrations can be considered extremely crude and innacurate in comparison to rigorous mathematical precision. Consider, however, how extraordinarily difficult it would be to grasp trigonometric functions, vector spaces, or even the basic Cartesian coordinate system, without first observing supporting representative illustrations. Even if later forgotten, those initial images are crucial for understanding. This work provides a wide range of richly color-illustrated examples of the abstract geometric structures dealt with regularly in mathematics and the sciences. It is unique in its quality and affordability, and is supported with excellent prose, briefly describing the developmental history, and frequently how to reconstruct the figures from a sparse handful of assumptions. From an introductory description of dimension, this book then branches into numerous and diverse major topics: scaling, slices, regular polytopes, perspective, coordinate geometry, and non-euclidean geometry. While sparing in its level of mathematical description and precision, it never diverges into a fully artistic exposition on the subjects either. There is a careful balance, to guide the reader into better understanding the particular system under discussion. Certainly reading this book is merely the first step of a far longer term process. Symbolic computing programs, such as Mathematica, Maple or MatLab, will assist in visualization, as well as in understanding the pragmatic relation between the graphical and set-theoretic descriptions of the figures. Other books will also assist in this. Many of Rucker's works provide further descriptions of certain topics, specifically Geometry Relativity & The Fourth Dimension is admirable in its brevity and profundity. Abbott's classic Flatland is the foundational book on non-technical description of dimensions. The venerable What Is Mathematics? by Courant and Robbins combines illustration and mathematics as well as any work written since. Design science touches on these topics frequently as well, Kappraff's Connections is an extraordinary example of this. Deeper mathematical topics include set theory, algebraic groups, vector analysis, and too many others to list. However abstract the concepts diagrams and illustrations in this book may seem initially, most if not all have been utilized for practical application in recent times. You may very well be using devices on a daily basis, which have these concepts as a basis for their functionality. Keep this in mind while reveling in what the individual imagination can conjure.

Concise Well-Written And Beautifully Illustrated Work *****

Mathematical ideas, when first learned, tend to undergo a curious inner transformation. At the outset, some tangible representation is necessary to effectively latch onto the concept. Thereafter, the symbolic elaboration using the language of mathematics is sufficient to encompass not only that particular figure, but limitless others like it as well. The underlying geometry is still there, but there are simply too many possibilities to illustrate in any amount of time.

The first step of illustrating must be manifest, using ink or chalk or sand or digital pixels. In this way, even the finest geometric illustrations can be considered extremely crude and innacurate in comparison to rigorous mathematical precision. Consider, however, how extraordinarily difficult it would be to grasp trigonometric functions, vector spaces, or even the basic Cartesian coordinate system, without first observing supporting representative illustrations. Even if later forgotten, those initial images are crucial for understanding.

This work provides a wide range of richly color-illustrated examples of the abstract geometric structures dealt with regularly in mathematics and the sciences. It is unique in its quality and affordability, and is supported with excellent prose, briefly describing the developmental history, and frequently how to reconstruct the figures from a sparse handful of assumptions. From an introductory description of dimension, this book then branches into numerous and diverse major topics: scaling, slices, regular polytopes, perspective, coordinate geometry, and non-euclidean geometry. While sparing in its level of mathematical description and precision, it never diverges into a fully artistic exposition on the subjects either. There is a careful balance, to guide the reader into better understanding the particular system under discussion.

Certainly reading this book is merely the first step of a far longer term process. Symbolic computing programs, such as Mathematica, Maple or MatLab, will assist in visualization, as well as in understanding the pragmatic relation between the graphical and set-theoretic descriptions of the figures. Other books will also assist in this. Many of Rucker's works provide further descriptions of certain topics, specifically Geometry Relativity & The Fourth Dimension is admirable in its brevity and profundity. Abbott's classic Flatland is the foundational book on non-technical description of dimensions. The venerable What Is Mathematics? by Courant and Robbins combines illustration and mathematics as well as any work written since. Design science touches on these topics frequently as well, Kappraff's Connections is an extraordinary example of this. Deeper mathematical topics include set theory, algebraic groups, vector analysis, and too many others to list.

However abstract the concepts diagrams and illustrations in this book may seem initially, most if not all have been utilized for practical application in recent times. You may very well be using devices on a daily basis, which have these concepts as a basis for their functionality. Keep this in mind while reveling in what the individual imagination can conjure.

The royal road to geometry! *****
This book is a jewel! It contains a wide collection of visual geometry. Professor Banchoff is able to link geometry to many aspects of life. It's a treasure trove for anybody teaching geometry at any level. It's a book that can be read at many levels. If you're willing to skip a bit here and there, you can get a very good general idea. But if you want to really understand all the details, it can make for hours of challenging reading. I'm still reading it! :-)

The royal road to geometry! *****

This book is a jewel! It contains a wide collection of visual geometry. Professor Banchoff is able to link geometry to many aspects of life. It's a treasure trove for anybody teaching geometry at any level. It's a book that can be read at many levels. If you're willing to skip a bit here and there, you can get a very good general idea. But if you want to really understand all the details, it can make for hours of challenging reading. I'm still reading it! :-)

What is a dimension? ****
A comfortable introduction to modern geometry for the general reader, with emphasis on the concept of the dimension. This reference concludes with an introduction to non-euclidean geometry.

What is a dimension? ****

A comfortable introduction to modern geometry for the general reader, with emphasis on the concept of the dimension. This reference concludes with an introduction to non-euclidean geometry.