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Hidden Harmonies: The Lives and Times of the Pythagorean Theorem
Our Price $22.00Hardcover
Special Order
Robert Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan
illuminate
Hidden Harmonies:
The Lives and Times of the Pythagorean Theorem
DateJan
27
Thursday
January 27, 2011 7:00 PM |
LocationHarvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138 |
Tickets
This event is free; no tickets are required.
|
Harvard Book Store is delighted to welcome husband-and-wife mathematics education team ROBERT KAPLAN and ELLEN KAPLAN as they reveal the wonder of one of geometry's simplest equations and discuss their new book, Hidden Harmonies: The Lives and Times of the Pythagorean Theorem.
a2 + b2 = c2. It sounds simple, doesn't it? Yet this familiar equation is a gateway into the riotous garden of mathematics, and sends us on a journey of exploration in the company of two inspired guides, authors and teachers Robert and Ellen Kaplan. They trace the life of the Pythagorean Theorem, from ancient Babylon to the present, visiting along the way Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, President James Garfield, and the Freemasons—not to mention the elusive Pythagoras himself, who almost certainly did not make the statement that bears his name.
How can a theorem have more than one proof? Why does this one have more than two hundred—or is it four thousand? The Pythagorean Theorem has even more applications than proofs: Ancient Egyptians used it for surveying property lines, and today astronomers call on it to measure the distance between stars. Its generalizations are stunning—the theorem works even with shapes on the sides that aren't squares, and not just in two dimensions, but any number you like. And perhaps its most intriguing feature of all, this tidy equation opened the door to the world of irrational numbers, an untidy discovery that deeply troubled Pythagoras's disciples.
"It's clear that this theorem continues to play an important role in math and science, that the human capacity for theoretical exploration remains unabated and that our 'curiosity always seeks to justify the peculiar, and imagination to shape a deeper unity.' As such, this engaging history of the elegantly simple theorem provides readers with much more to ponder than just the mathematical." —Kirkus Reviews
Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes
As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and the Adidas Store. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.
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