Why Beauty Is Truth : A History of Symmetry

from BakuDreamer

Only read 3/4ths of this, the history parts, the math parts are still outside what I can understand

from dcunning11235

This was, as advertised, a history of symmetry; I feel that I did not get a good understanding for what exactly symmetry is, in a more advanced sense, however, which is partially what I was after. Being able to perform an operation on an 'object' and not change it... got it. But when he starts ta...

from gopfolk

I started this book with the thoughts that it would discuss the nature of symmetry. I forgot to read the subtitle that states A History of Symmetry. While this would seem like a small oversight it was quite a large one with this book since it discussed the HISTORY of mathematical symmetry. WOW!! ...

from jjwilson61

Despite promises near the beginning of the book about making the math easy to understand I was quickly lost. But the short biographies of the various mathematicians were enlightening and entertaining. I was especially struck that so many of the math geniuses were also linguistic prodigies as well.

from Cheryl_in_CC_NV

The author messed up. He frets aloud about giving us lay-readers too much math, and still apparently didn't get a layperson to edit it for him. He avoids giving us equations, choosing instead to explain mathematical ideas in words - but the words are jargon. He explains what a square root is, and...