Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars
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A01=Clifford A. Pickover
Addition
Algorithm
Antimagic square
Author_Clifford A. Pickover
Award
Binary number
Calculation
Category=PBM
Category=PDZM
Checkerboard
Clockwise
Combination
Computation
Computer
Concentric
Cube
Cube (algebra)
Diagonal
Diagram (category theory)
Diameter
Dimension
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
Factorial
Five-pointed star
Four-dimensional space
Geometry
Hexagon
Hypercube
Illustration
Integer
Knight's tour
Latin square
Leonhard Euler
Line segment
Magic constant
Magic cube
Magic hexagon
Magic series
Magic square
Magic star
Main diagonal
Martin Gardner
Mathematician
Mathematics
Natural number
Number form
Number theory
Oxford University Press
Pandiagonal magic cube
Pandiagonal magic square
Parity (mathematics)
Perfect magic cube
Piers Anthony
Power of two
Prime number
Rectangle
Right triangle
Roger Penrose
Scientific American
Scientific journal
Space diagonal
Square
Square matrix
Subset
Summation
Tetrahedron
The Emperor's New Mind
Theorem
Three-dimensional space (mathematics)
Torus
Triangular number
Two-dimensional space
World Scientific
Yantra
Product details
- ISBN 9780691115979
- Weight: 624g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 18 Jan 2004
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Humanity's love affair with mathematics and mysticism reached a critical juncture, legend has it, on the back of a turtle in ancient China. As Clifford Pickover briefly recounts in this enthralling book, the most comprehensive in decades on magic squares, Emperor Yu was supposedly strolling along the Yellow River one day around 2200 B.C. when he spotted the creature: its shell had a series of dots within squares. To Yu's amazement, each row of squares contained fifteen dots, as did the columns and diagonals. When he added any two cells opposite along a line through the center square, like 2 and 8, he always arrived at 10. The turtle, unwitting inspirer of the "Yu" square, went on to a life of courtly comfort and fame. Pickover explains why Chinese emperors, Babylonian astrologer-priests, prehistoric cave people in France, and ancient Mayans of the Yucatan were convinced that magic squares--arrays filled with numbers or letters in certain arrangements--held the secret of the universe. Since the dawn of civilization, he writes, humans have invoked such patterns to ward off evil and bring good fortune.
Yet who would have guessed that in the twenty-first century, mathematicians would be studying magic squares so immense and in so many dimensions that the objects defy ordinary human contemplation and visualization? Readers are treated to a colorful history of magic squares and similar structures, their construction, and classification along with a remarkable variety of newly discovered objects ranging from ornate inlaid magic cubes to hypercubes. Illustrated examples occur throughout, with some patterns from the author's own experiments. The tesseracts, circles, spheres, and stars that he presents perfectly convey the age-old devotion of the math-minded to this Zenlike quest. Number lovers, puzzle aficionados, and math enthusiasts will treasure this rich and lively encyclopedia of one of the few areas of mathematics where the contributions of even nonspecialists count.
Clifford Pickover is the author of over twenty books on a broad range of topics in science and art, a columnist for "Odyssey", and an inventor. His books include "Surfing Through Hyperspace: Understanding Higher Universes in Six Easy Lessons, Wonders of Numbers: Adventures in Mathematics, Mind, and Meaning," and "The Loom of God: Mathematical Tapestries at the Edge of Time".
