Flatland is a novel by Edwin Abbott Abbott, published in 1884. It's written as a biography by "A. Square," a two-dimensional creature who is literally a living square, thinner than a sheet of paper. He lives with other two-dimensional creatures on a surface called Flatland. In the book, Mr. Square tells of his adventures in worlds of different dimensions: Pointland (zero dimensions), Lineland (one dimension), and Spaceland (three dimensions) all inhabited with creatures suited for their respective worlds. Abbott does a wonderful job of world building, explain how the society (a satire of the Victorian society) and infrastructure of Flatland works. Even though the book was written 135 years ago, I found it very easy to read. Amazon is selling the Dover edition of Flatland for less than the price of a cup of coffee. I just bought it for my daughter.
Dover edition of Edwin Abbott Abbott's Flatland (1884)
Flatland is one of my favorite Math(ish) books
I love books about math, especially ones that aren't textbooks but rather about the history, philosophy, and wonder of mathematics. In the most recent issue of my newsletter, The Magnet, I wrote about three of my favorite math(ish) books. Here's one of them: Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions is… READ THE REST
"This statement is false": animated explainer of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem
"This statement is false." Is that statement true then? In 1931, Kurt Gödel published his first Incompleteness Theorem showing that no logical system can be entirely proven. The Incompleteness Theorems were (and still are) mind grenades in the world of mathematics and philosophy. In the video above, British mathematician and author Marcus du Sautoy does a… READ THE REST
Jaques Tits, the mathematician behind Tits buildings, the Tits alternative, the Tits group, and the Tits metric, has died at 91
Belgian-born mathematician Jaques Tits passed away on Sunday, December 5th, leaving behind a legacy of research in group theory and geometry. His tendency to name his contributions after himself suggests that he knew his power. He won the Abel Prize in 2008, an award created in 1899 after a Norwegian mathematician learned that Alfred Nobel… READ THE REST
Teach yourself how to play guitar with the Jamstik trainer
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Has learning how to play the guitar been on your bucket list? Learning how to play guitar should be simple, fun, and accessible, but with the average guitar costing $600 — lessons not included, you might… READ THE REST
Make room for important and large files with Prism Drive cloud storage
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. With most of our daily activities happening online, no one will ever complain about having too much storage space. On the contrary, it's frustrating when you run out of storage or have… READ THE REST
This 13-in-1 media hub brings your favorite content to the big screen
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. We're sure our parents had a wild time back in the day without modern media, and to some degree, we wish we could be a little less plugged in. But then we… READ THE REST
