Blueprints : how mathematics shapes creativity /
Du Sautoy, Marcus
Blueprints : how mathematics shapes creativity / Marcus Du Sautoy - New York : Basic Books, 2025 - x, 372 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Dramatis Personae
Overture
Blueprint One: The Primes
Blueprint Two: The Circle
Blueprint Three: The Fibonacci Numbers
Blueprint Four: The Golden Ratio
Blueprint Five: Fractals
Blueprint Six: The Platonic Solids
Blueprint Seven: Symmetry
Blueprint Eight: Hyperbolic Geometry
Blueprint Nine: Randomness
Finale
When Shakespeare has the Three Witches cast Macbeth's lot, he uses something very weird to do it: not simply "eye of newt and toe of frog," but the number seven. And when Hamlet claims, "To be or not to be, that is the question," Shakespeare reaches for eleven. For Shakespeare, prime numbers were magical. And he is not alone. As Marcus du Sautoy showcases in Blueprints, creativity is inseparable from mathematics. The designs of Le Corbusier and Leonardo; the music of Glass, Bach, and Debussy; the wild visions of Dali, the choreography of Laban, the animation of Pixar--all are shot through with mathematics, from primes and fractals to the weirder worlds of Hamiltonian cycles and hyperbolic geometry. And Du Sautoy argues that the relationship runs both ways. Just as mathematics inspires new art, the artistic mindset is a necessity for discovering new mathematics.
9781541605695 1541605691
/ D812 2025
Blueprints : how mathematics shapes creativity / Marcus Du Sautoy - New York : Basic Books, 2025 - x, 372 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Dramatis Personae
Overture
Blueprint One: The Primes
Blueprint Two: The Circle
Blueprint Three: The Fibonacci Numbers
Blueprint Four: The Golden Ratio
Blueprint Five: Fractals
Blueprint Six: The Platonic Solids
Blueprint Seven: Symmetry
Blueprint Eight: Hyperbolic Geometry
Blueprint Nine: Randomness
Finale
When Shakespeare has the Three Witches cast Macbeth's lot, he uses something very weird to do it: not simply "eye of newt and toe of frog," but the number seven. And when Hamlet claims, "To be or not to be, that is the question," Shakespeare reaches for eleven. For Shakespeare, prime numbers were magical. And he is not alone. As Marcus du Sautoy showcases in Blueprints, creativity is inseparable from mathematics. The designs of Le Corbusier and Leonardo; the music of Glass, Bach, and Debussy; the wild visions of Dali, the choreography of Laban, the animation of Pixar--all are shot through with mathematics, from primes and fractals to the weirder worlds of Hamiltonian cycles and hyperbolic geometry. And Du Sautoy argues that the relationship runs both ways. Just as mathematics inspires new art, the artistic mindset is a necessity for discovering new mathematics.
9781541605695 1541605691
/ D812 2025