The seduction of curves
Subtitle: the lines of beauty that connect mathematics, art, and the nude
By: Allan McRobie ; with photography by Helena Weightman
Contributors: Weightman, Helena, photographer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 159
ISBN-13: 9780691175331
Subjects: Plane Geometry; Shapes; Curves in engineering; Curves; Form (Aesthetics)
Description: In this large-format book, lavishly illustrated in color throughout, Allan McRobie takes the reader on an alluring exploration of the beautiful curves that shape our world--from our bodies to Salvador Dalí's paintings and the space-time fabric of the universe itself. The book focuses on seven curves--the fold, cusp, swallowtail, and butterfly, plus the hyperbolic, elliptical, and parabolic "umbilics"--and describes the surprising origins of their taxonomy in the catastrophe theory of mathematician René Thom.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: 1.; title: The Alphabet of Beautiful Curves -- -- 2.; title: The Fold -- -- 3.; title: The Cusp -- -- 4.; title: The Swallowtail -- -- 5.; title: The Butterfly -- -- 6.; title: The Wigwam -- -- 7.; title: Lips, Beaks, Gull, Goose -- -- 8.; title: The Persistence of Cusps -- -- 9.; title: Moiré and Dupin -- -- 10.; title: The Umbilics -- -- 11.; title: Catastrophe Optics -- -- 12.; title: The Rainbow -- -- 13.; title: Gravitational Lenses -- -- 14.; title: Stability -- -- 15.; title: Morphogenesis -- -- 16.; title: Gabo -- -- 17.; title: The Pregnance of Curves -- -- 18.; title: Thom -- -- 19.; title: Dalí.