Fearless Symmetry

[alex weber]

Fearless Symmetry, a book on symmetry in mathematics. Anyone read it yet and is it worth picking up?

[PM 2Ring]

I read it years ago & enjoyed it very much. But it was a while ago, and I read lots about symmetry, so I can't remenber many details of that particular book.

[Quaternia]

I have it and I like it.
Funnily enough, there's a physics book on supersymmetry called "Fearful symmetry" that came out sometime in 2007, by Roger Penrose. I found that out at a library I was in, it made me laugh a lot; either it's a tip of the hat towards that book, or just a coincidence, but I found it funny regardless.

[PM 2Ring]

I'd say that both books drew their title from Blake's poem.

http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/tyger.html

THE TYGER (from Songs Of Experience)

By William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

1794

[Quaternia]

Wow, never knew that poem, actually. Thanks for posting!

[pollywog]

The most important part of that p[oem is to pronounce "symmetry" to rhyme with "try".

[PhilipXV]

I've read "An Old Man's Toy" by the same author.

[Kewangji]

The most important part of that p[oem is to pronounce "symmetry" to rhyme with "try".

Just say 'eye' the Scottish way, rhyming with 'tree'. At least, I think it's the Scottish way.

[quantropy]

I read 'Fearless Symmetry' some time ago, but unfortunately I didn't write a review of it (which I do for most book that I read). If I remember correctly, I was impressed at how the author didn't try to teach the whole of undergraduate algebra in one book, but concentrated on giving definite examples related to the topic (Galois groups) he was talking about. This allows the reader to get much deeper into the subject than would otherwise be the case. But not as deep as the author seems to think, I becomes hard to follow whats going on towards the end of the book.