Amy got me a great book for Christmas — The Math Book (she was inspired by the BoingBoing gushing, here). It goes through the history of math and spends a page on each of 250 different concepts. I’ve been reintroduced to prime numbers and early numerical paradoxes, but I’ve also learned a whole heck of a lot.
Some of it is beyond me, frankly, but author Clifford Pickover does a fantastic job of making each concept accessible to anyone who’s willing to think a little bit. Or, just to dream and let their imagination run a little wild.
There’s been tons already that I think I’d like to blog about, but the one that I read last night and sticks in my head is about turning a sphere inside-out.
Sure, you could poke a hole in a tennis ball, say, and then pull the inside part out through the hole, but that’s against the rules. Mathematically, for a sphere to turn inside out, there can’t be any holes and there can’t be any creases or pinching. Luckily, a sphere can pass through itself. (I tried visualizing a soap bubble, if two bubble films could come together and then come apart on the other side, like water waves, say.
So, can you inside-out a sphere? Turns out you can — but it’s not easy. If you’ve got a few minutes, these videos show you how its done and take you through it.
Nice link to Amazon for the book, however let’s not forget that they could not deliver the goods. (I’m back!)