Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer? (Penguin science)
This book's central theme involves two remarkably nonintuitive facts. First, a completely symmetric plane looks the same at every point and from every angle. We find this uninteresting and pay it no heed. Thus, what we detect as symmetry is, in fact, those symmetries that remain after the greater symmetry has been broken. Second, the study of symmetry is really the study of groups of transformations. Stewart ( Does God Play Dice? , Blackwell Pubs., 1989) and Golubitsky (mathematics, Univ. of Houston) show how these modern mathematical concepts can be used to describe many of the most interesting features of the physical and biological world. This is not an easy book but well worth the effort. For larger science collections.- Harold D. Shane, Baruch Coll. , CUNYCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.