The road that leads from the Mobius strip -- a common-sense-defying continuous loop with only one side and one edge, made famous by the illustrations of M.C. Escher -- goes to some of the strangest spots imaginable. It takes us to a place where the purely intellectual enters our daily world: where our outraged senses, overloaded with grocery bills, the price of gas, and what to eat for lunch, are expected to absorb really bizarre ideas. And no better guide to this weird universe exists than the brilliant thinker Clifford A. Pickover, the 21st century's answer to Buckminster Fuller. Come along as Pickover traces the origins of the Mobius strip from the mid-1800s, when the visionary scientist Dr. August Mobius became the first to describe the properties of one-sided surfaces, to the present, where it is an integral part of mathematics, magic, science, art, engineering, literature, and music. It has become a metaphor for change, strangeness, looping, and rejuvenation. Touching on everything from molecules and metal sculptures to postage stamps, architectural structures, and models of our entire universe, The Mobius Strip is lavishly illustrated and gives readers a glimpse into other worlds and new ways of thinking as Pickover reaches across cultures and dimensions.
The road that leads from the Mobius strip--a common-sense-defying continuous loop with only one side and one edge, made famous by the illustrations of M. C. Escher--goes to some of the strangest spots imaginable. It takes us to a place where the purely intellectual enters our daily world: where our outraged senses, overloaded as they are with grocery bills, the price of gas, and what to eat for lunch, are expected to absorb really bizarre ideas. And no better guide to this weird universe--which is our own, after all--exists than the brilliant thinker Clifford A. Pickover, the twenty-first century's answer to Buckminster Fuller. From molecules and metal sculptures to postage stamps, architectural structures, and models of our entire universe, The Mobius Strip gives readers a glimpse of new ways of thinking and of other worlds as Pickover reaches across cultures and peers beyond our ordinary reality. Lavishly illustrated, The Mobius Strip is an infinite fountain of strange and wondrous forms that can be used to help explain how mathematics has permeated every field of scientific endeavor, how it can be used to help explain the colors of a sunset or the architecture of our brains; how it helps us build supersonic aircraft and roller-coasters, simulate the flow of Earth's natural resources, explore subatomic quantum realities, and depict faraway galaxies. Following the tortuous path of the Mobius strip, we learn how mathematics has changed the way we look at the cosmos.
