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I heard about this book in a chemistry course I took in college I think it was. Or maybe not.The book is short and not that mathematically challenging if at all. Give it a try before you read the book and see.
I am very glad that I did.Not only does this book give a reader a new perspective in looking at space and maybe even time, but might also be extended to give a new perspective on almost anything. The author used a method of showing how worlds with fewer than three spacial dimensions might operate, and how a higher dimension being would be perceived by them and vice versa. Several years later I had the chance to read it.
I think that I got at least a glimpse as I neared the end of the book. It may show us that at least in many cases, it is how you look at something that can determine what you see.In any case, the book helps readers get an intuitive idea of what 4 (or maybe more as well) spacial dimensions mean. That is not as easy a thing as you might think.
This concept was used in many respects in Rucker's more recent book SPACELAND - also worth a read if the subject interests you.I have read that Flatland was also originally meant to provide some social commentary, but this may be in large part lost on us today as times have changed I guess. Give it a try and I promise you will learn something.
The Kindle Edition does not include figures - the comment from Amazon support on this was:"Occasionally, conversion to digital requires modification of content, layout, or format, including the omission of some images and tables."
Don't buy this version, there are plenty of others, including free downloads. The formatting of this book is broken such that there's a forced line break every other line, making the text annoying to read. Get one of the others that is properly formatted and don't waste your money on this one.
Some of my work as an engineer has me in six- and nine-dimensional space, and I can say that I understand the math a bit better after reading this story.and a few thought experiments, much like the main character in the story. However you approach this classic story, there is definitely a lot to chew on.For whatever reason I never was required to read "Flatland" in high school.
In fact, it's hard to say what the main point of the book is, if indeed there is just one. The classic "Flatland" covers many topics in surprisingly few pages.
The persecution of prophets is also a major point of the end of the story as the two-dimensional being tries to explain the three-dimensional world to others in his planar world; you can interpret this in a pro-religious sense (Jesus) or in an pro-science sense- another reviewer mentioned the trials and tribulations of Galileo Galilei. Mathematicians use the book to explain and explore the concepts of dimensionality from the perspective of a two-dimensional being; once we understand his world (in the first half of the book), we then learn how he perceives both lower- and higher-dimensional objects.
There is some interesting social and political commentary along the way, clearly satirical of the class structure and gender roles of Victorian England, but still amazingly relevant today in the United States. In hindsight, this is probably a good thing because I probably wouldn't have appreciated the story as much as I do now.
I definitely recommend this book for a variety of audiences, but I don't know that using it in a high-school math class is a good idea- the prose is a little flowery and long-winded by today's standards, and without any prior knowledge of Victorian culture this book might be mistaken as misogynistic (see some of the other reviews).
Look at the original publication date of Flatland (not this edition), and imagine the author contemplating the fourth dimension back then. Expect an older style of writing. A must-read for all who appreciate geometry. Put yourself in this frame of mind, most suitable for truly enjoying the concepts and details of this classic work. Realize that it is not purely a mathematical book, but has a Victorian theme, too. Appreciate the geometry concepts in their historic context. A must-read if you enjoy geometry. This thrift edition is a bargain, too.
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