Geometry (Inside Mathematics): Understanding Shapes and Sizes

Age range 14+

One of the hardest questions that mathematics teachers have to answer is 'Why?' Schoolroom sums are crucial in learning the awesome power of mathematics, but they are often a world away from how the knowledge is applied and where it came from. Inside Mathematics: Geometry is there to fill that gap.

The word 'geometry' means to 'measure the Earth.' Ancient mathematicians wanting to do more than count money and merchandise used geometry to model the natural world and then the world of numbers that lies behind it. What began by scratching circles and squares in the dirt has led to to infinitely large shapes you could hold in your hand, a Universe in which straight lines can be curved, and Internet search engines that handle information as structures with hundreds of dimensions.

Inside Mathematics: Geometry introduces the amazing people who figured out how shapes work and how they can be used to unlock secrets of nature. Written to engage, and enthuse young people, it show readers how ideas of long-dead geniuses ended up in their homework assignment: Trigonometry is not just about triangles - it can tell you how big the Universe is. Not every polyhedron has three dimensions: The tesseract of sci-fi movies really exists as a four-dimensional cube that can turn itself inside out.