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Divine Proportions

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the thought-you-said-mathematical-erotica dept.

David Halprin writes with a review of a new (and mighty odd sounding) mathematics book: "In my humble opinion, we have an unjustified polemic in the world of mathematics, yet again. My background is tertiary level mathematics and concomitant research in specialised areas, so when a friend e-mailed me the link to this book, I was so excited after reading the author's hype, that I ordered a pre-publication copy. My expectations have not been met, unfortunately, hence my analysis precipitated this review." Read on for Halprin's idiosyncractic take on Norman John Wildberger's Divine Proportions: Rational Trigonometry to Universal Geometry. Divine Proportions - Rational Trigonometry to Universal Geometry author Norman John Wildberger pages 300 publisher Wild Egg Pty Ltd rating 2 reviewer David Halprin ISBN summary Wilberger presents an ultimately disappointing vision of a new descriptive system for geometry.

There are various ways to approach Norman's so-called "Rational Trigonometry" and/or "Universal Geometry." I have examined it from various perspectives and it does not live up to Norman's claims, whichever standpoint, that I have taken.

DEFINITIONS

8 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Karma whoring by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 5, Informative

    Slashdotters vetted this before

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  2. Some interesting comments about... by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...the content of this book here. The core idea is sound and it looks like it has application to computer graphics.

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  3. Re:geesh by bunions · · Score: 3, Informative

    well, no, I speak German, sorta. And Alas and alack, niente, gar nichts, zilch. Woe is me. Es tut mit leid translates into, roughly, "such a shame, nothing, nothing, zero, Woe is me, I'm afraid not." He's not saying anything different in German than he's already said in English. It's stupid.

    also, it's 'es tut mir leid, but I'm not picky.

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  4. A very odd mathematician by ortholattice · · Score: 2, Informative
    The author, Norman Wildberger, is one strange mathematician. I could hardly believe his rant against set theory, which borderlines on crankish or at the very minimum appallingly uninformed. For example, he calls the ZF (Zermelo-Fraenkel) axioms a "sorry list of assertions" - "these statements are awash with difficulties. What is a property? What is a parameter? What is a function? What is a family of sets? Where is the explanation of what all the symbols mean, if indeed they have any meaning? How many further assumptions are hidden behind the syntax and logical conventions assumed by these postulates?" In fact, these axioms are very precisely defined, and rank among mankind's greatest achievements.

    (For the uninformed, consult Wikipedia. For a very precise breakdown of these axioms translated to primitve symbols - Wikipedia still includes some higher-level defined symbols that Wildberger objects to because he can't seem to understand them - see the metamath version. In other words, there is nothing fuzzy or ambiguous about these axioms.)

    His set theory rant created quite a furor on Usenet, here and here.

  5. Compensating for something? by Nereus · · Score: 4, Informative

    Using long words doesn't make you look any smarter in the same way driving a flashy car doesn't make your dick look any bigger.

  6. Reviewer's equations aren't even right! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    distance**2 is not x2**2 - x1**2 + y2**2 - y1**2

    It is (x1-x2)**2 + (y2-y1)**2

  7. Review is an obvious troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This review is just an improved version of this classic adequacy troll: http://www.adequacy.org/public/stories/2001.10.14. 163749.94.html

    The obvious mistake in the distance formula and the interpretation of the "fields of characteristic 2" exception are intended to rile up people who *are* familiar with these things.

  8. "Mighty odd-sounding?" by complexmath · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Divine Proportion is one of the most well-known geometric properties. Here is a link to the wiki page for the uninformed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio