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duvallmel's review against another edition
Only up to p. 57, but has some interesting history of geometry and the discovery of geometric objects.
shanth's review against another edition
3.0
Not the book you want to read if you want to know much about the Monster Group, or Monstrous moonshine, but a fun journey through some history of Math, and anecdotes about famous mathematicians.
merriweathermakes's review against another edition
1.0
Symmmetry: A Journey Into the Patterns of Nature shows a lot of potential. There simply aren't many books targeted to a lay audience exploring the complex concept of symmetry. But does Sautoy deliver a successful and accessible tome outlining symmetry and the nature of mathematical patterns?
Pros: Well designed cover; Interesting topic; Fusion of math & memoir
Cons: Condescending tone; Frequent redundancies; Lack of preface
Like most recent science and math books, Symmetry is divided into chapters with accurate and descriptive subheadings within each chapter. There are twelve chapters in all, each titled with a different month, representing the author's personal journey to turning 40 and beyond.
While this is a somewhat novel arrangement for a math book, what Symmetry lacks is a preface. A preface is much appreciated at the outset of a work of non-fiction. The preface typically serves to introduce the topic at hand, as well as to provide a helpful lesson to the reader regarding any technical terms and jargon necessary to the understand the remainder of the book.
Despite the lack of a preface, Sautoy does briefly define, or provide an illustration for, each of the higher level mathematical terms as they are discussed. However, even with this assistance from the author some concepts are just too advanced for a general popular readership.
One such concept is the idea of greater than three-dimensional objects and space. While this concept may indeed be too difficult for all of Symmetry's readers to grasp, Sautoy's condescending tone when discussing multi-dimensional objects is wholly unnecessary and made me want to put the book down and not pick it up again.
Another flaw impairing the overall readability is the repetitiveness of certain observations from Sautoy's mentors. While these observations are undoubtably important to Sautoy and to the concept at hand, Symmetry's audience should be given some credit. It is a rare reader that forgets what occured in Chapter 1 before completing Chapter 2, and likewise for Chapters 2 and 3.
Symmetry is also nearly entirely lacking in footnotes but it does have an endnotes and a futher reading section at its conclusion which could be helpful for higher-level math students doing research projects.
This book is only recommended for those with an advanced understanding of higher level mathematics and readers with a high degree of patience who can overlook a condescending tone and dull repetition.
Pros: Well designed cover; Interesting topic; Fusion of math & memoir
Cons: Condescending tone; Frequent redundancies; Lack of preface
Like most recent science and math books, Symmetry is divided into chapters with accurate and descriptive subheadings within each chapter. There are twelve chapters in all, each titled with a different month, representing the author's personal journey to turning 40 and beyond.
While this is a somewhat novel arrangement for a math book, what Symmetry lacks is a preface. A preface is much appreciated at the outset of a work of non-fiction. The preface typically serves to introduce the topic at hand, as well as to provide a helpful lesson to the reader regarding any technical terms and jargon necessary to the understand the remainder of the book.
Despite the lack of a preface, Sautoy does briefly define, or provide an illustration for, each of the higher level mathematical terms as they are discussed. However, even with this assistance from the author some concepts are just too advanced for a general popular readership.
One such concept is the idea of greater than three-dimensional objects and space. While this concept may indeed be too difficult for all of Symmetry's readers to grasp, Sautoy's condescending tone when discussing multi-dimensional objects is wholly unnecessary and made me want to put the book down and not pick it up again.
Another flaw impairing the overall readability is the repetitiveness of certain observations from Sautoy's mentors. While these observations are undoubtably important to Sautoy and to the concept at hand, Symmetry's audience should be given some credit. It is a rare reader that forgets what occured in Chapter 1 before completing Chapter 2, and likewise for Chapters 2 and 3.
Symmetry is also nearly entirely lacking in footnotes but it does have an endnotes and a futher reading section at its conclusion which could be helpful for higher-level math students doing research projects.
This book is only recommended for those with an advanced understanding of higher level mathematics and readers with a high degree of patience who can overlook a condescending tone and dull repetition.
ederwin's review against another edition
4.0
This is not just a book about the mathematical theory of symmetry (a.k.a. Group Theory), but also stories about the author's own life, and the history of people and ideas during the development of the theory. Normally I prefer my math/science books to be only about the math or science and get annoyed when they talk about the lives of the people who discovered the ideas. But in this case it works for me. In part because the mathematicians involved had such interesting, and often tragic, stories.
I studied basic Group Theory in graduate school and found it fascinating. A book like this makes me want to learn more. But an hour or two spent on Wikipedia convinces me that I really don't want to go there. My mind would explode. You need the kind of brain that can effortlessly memorize 1000 digits of pi, or the bus schedule for every bus in England, things which du Sautoy's colleagues have done. Nope. I'll stop here!
I studied basic Group Theory in graduate school and found it fascinating. A book like this makes me want to learn more. But an hour or two spent on Wikipedia convinces me that I really don't want to go there. My mind would explode. You need the kind of brain that can effortlessly memorize 1000 digits of pi, or the bus schedule for every bus in England, things which du Sautoy's colleagues have done. Nope. I'll stop here!
brizmus's review against another edition
4.0
8/10
The first half of this book was amazing. He did such a good job of giving us the history of mathematics and explaining abstract concepts in fun, easy to understand ways.
And he did a great job interweaving his personal story in to this.
Unfortunately, he went off the rails a little bit in the second half. There was a lot of name mentioning and a lot less history and explanation. In the first half he defined the word prime.
In the second half, if I hadn’t studied group theory, if I hadn’t already known about zeta functions, I would have been totally lost. Interesting for a mathematician, but maybe not for anyone else.
And at the end of each chapter, it was like he remembered that he was supposed to also talk about himself, which made for a few sentences that really seemed to come out of nowhere.
Still, I loved it!! And I find myself feeling passionate about symmetry all over again, reminded of my undergraduate days.
The first half of this book was amazing. He did such a good job of giving us the history of mathematics and explaining abstract concepts in fun, easy to understand ways.
And he did a great job interweaving his personal story in to this.
Unfortunately, he went off the rails a little bit in the second half. There was a lot of name mentioning and a lot less history and explanation. In the first half he defined the word prime.
In the second half, if I hadn’t studied group theory, if I hadn’t already known about zeta functions, I would have been totally lost. Interesting for a mathematician, but maybe not for anyone else.
And at the end of each chapter, it was like he remembered that he was supposed to also talk about himself, which made for a few sentences that really seemed to come out of nowhere.
Still, I loved it!! And I find myself feeling passionate about symmetry all over again, reminded of my undergraduate days.
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