Euler's Gem
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-15457-2 (ISBN)
Leonhard Euler's polyhedron formula describes the structure of many objects--from soccer balls and gemstones to Buckminster Fuller's buildings and giant all-carbon molecules. Yet Euler's formula is so simple it can be explained to a child. Euler's Gem tells the illuminating story of this indispensable mathematical idea. From ancient Greek geometry to today's cutting-edge research, Euler's Gem celebrates the discovery of Euler's beloved polyhedron formula and its far-reaching impact on topology, the study of shapes. In 1750, Euler observed that any polyhedron composed of V vertices, E edges, and F faces satisfies the equation V-E+F=2. David Richeson tells how the Greeks missed the formula entirely; how Descartes almost discovered it but fell short; how nineteenth-century mathematicians widened the formula's scope in ways that Euler never envisioned by adapting it for use with doughnut shapes, smooth surfaces, and higher dimensional shapes; and how twentieth-century mathematicians discovered that every shape has its own Euler's formula.
Using wonderful examples and numerous illustrations, Richeson presents the formula's many elegant and unexpected applications, such as showing why there is always some windless spot on earth, how to measure the acreage of a tree farm by counting trees, and how many crayons are needed to color any map. Filled with a who's who of brilliant mathematicians who questioned, refined, and contributed to a remarkable theorem's development, Euler's Gem will fascinate every mathematics enthusiast.
David S. Richeson is associate professor of mathematics at Dickinson College.
Preface ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Leonhard Euler and His Three "Great" Friends 10 Chapter 2: What Is a Polyhedron? 27 Chapter 3: The Five Perfect Bodies 31 Chapter 4: The Pythagorean Brotherhood and Plato's Atomic Theory 36 Chapter 5: Euclid and His Elements 44 Chapter 6: Kepler's Polyhedral Universe 51 Chapter 7: Euler's Gem 63 Chapter 8: Platonic Solids, Golf Balls, Fullerenes, and Geodesic Domes 75 Chapter 9: Scooped by Descartes? 81 Chapter 10: Legendre Gets It Right 87 Chapter 11: A Stroll through Konigsberg 100 Chapter 12: Cauchy's Flattened Polyhedra 112 Chapter 13: Planar Graphs, Geoboards, and Brussels Sprouts 119 Chapter 14: It's a Colorful World 130 Chapter 15: New Problems and New Proofs 145 Chapter 16: Rubber Sheets, Hollow Doughnuts, and Crazy Bottles 156 Chapter 17: Are They the Same, or Are They Different? 173 Chapter 18: A Knotty Problem 186 Chapter 19: Combing the Hair on a Coconut 202 Chapter 20: When Topology Controls Geometry 219 Chapter 21: The Topology of Curvy Surfaces 231 Chapter 22: Navigating in n Dimensions 241 Chapter 23: Henri Poincare and the Ascendance of Topology 253 Epilogue The Million-Dollar Question 265 Acknowledgements 271 Appendix A Build Your Own Polyhedra and Surfaces 273 Appendix B Recommended Readings 283 Notes 287 References 295 Illustration Credits 309 Index 311
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 15.4.2012 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 36 halftones. 185 line illus. 8 tables. |
| Verlagsort | New Jersey |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 235 mm |
| Gewicht | 539 g |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik |
| Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geometrie / Topologie | |
| Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geschichte der Mathematik | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-691-15457-0 / 0691154570 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-691-15457-2 / 9780691154572 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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