Flatland Essays - Dimension, Films, Flatland, Sphereland

Flatland Essays - Dimension, Films, Flatland, Sphereland Flatland Dimensions: you keep running into them while reading your books and attending your lectures, and in most computations they are not very difficult to handle. But have you ever tried to imagine what all those more-dimensional spaces and objects look like? For example, the four-dimensional analogon of a cube? There are lots of people who will put this aside as nonsense, not worth spending your time on, but there have been others who found this a very intriguing question. One of those people was Edwin A. Abbott, a nineteenth-century schoolmaster and clergyman who was fond of mathematics and literature. In 1884 he wrote Flatland, a small but very amusing book which is not only about spatial dimensions, but also houses an entire Victorian society of two-dimensional creatures. Flatland is divided in two parts. In the first part a Square, inhabitant of Flatland, gives a very amusing overview of Flatland society in all its aspects. Amusing, because Flatland society reveals itself to the careful reader as a subtle satire of the Victorian society in which Abbott lived: it is, for example, clearly hierarchically organized. All inhabitants of Flatland are geometrical figures, regular or irregular. A Flatlander with a regular shape (i.e. a polygon) automatically belongs to the upper social class; the more sides he has, the higher his position. At the top of this structure stand the priests, who are circles, and whose judgement cannot be fought. The lower class consists of triangles with two equal sides (the so called isosceles), who form the plebs. Being a woman means that you are no more than a single line, and you continuously have to beware of severely wounding a Flatlander with your sharp, needle-like end. Polygons, by having a good marriage, can have offspring with one additional side (thus automatically of higher class); women, however, can never be more than lines. In the second part of the book the Square tells the story of his own life. On the forenight of a new millennium, the peaceful life he lived with his wife and children is disturbed by the arrival of a Sphere. The Sphere tries to convince the Square that there are THREE dimensions by drawing analogies between the different dimensions. The Square, failing to imagine the existence of such a thing, makes an effort to chase the Sphere away, but the Sphere lifts him out of his two-dimensional world into the third dimension! At first horribly frightened, the Square becomes more and more enthusiastic about the beautiful things he sees (and could never have imagined possible). When, however, he concludes that there should be even more dimensions than these, he runs into an argument with the Sphere, who appears to be very short-sighted in these matters. The Square is then placed back into his two dimensions, and decides to spread the word about the existence of multiple dimensions among the peo ple of Flatland. Naturally, in Victorian Flatland these unholy theories give him eventually more trouble than he wished himself. What makes Flatland fun to read, is that it is a popular scientific work and a social satire at the same time. Abbott succeeded in wrapping these themes in an entertaining story, which seems incapable of aging, even after more than a hundred years! Naturally, there have been many who tried to follow Abbott, however, with only a mathematical goal (indeed, some kind of sequel to Flatland exists; it is called Sphereland, but I have never read it myself). In these much more recent books, higher dimensions are again explored in a popular way; also, some attention is given to visualizing these higher dimensions by drawing analogies. This is particularly interesting because truly imagining higher spatial dimensions seems to be an almost impossible business... A challenge awaits?

Angels and Demons Book Review

Angels and Demons Book Review When Dan Brown published his fourth  novel, The Da Vinci Code, in 2003, it was an instant bestseller. It boasted a fascinating protagonist, a Harvard professor of religious iconography named Robert Langdon, and compelling conspiracy theories. Brown, it seemed, had come out of nowhere. But the bestseller actually had precursors, including Angels and Demons,  the first book in the  Robert Langdon series. Published in 2000 by Simon Schuster, the 713-page turner  takes place chronologically before The Da Vinci Code, although it doesnt really matter which you read first. Both books revolve around  conspiracies within the Catholic church, but most of the action in Angels and Demons takes place in Rome and the Vatican.  As of 2018, Brown has written three more books in the  Robert Langdon saga, The Lost Symbol (2009), Inferno (2013), and Origin (2017). All but The Lost Symbol and Origin have been made into films starring Tom Hanks. Plot The book opens with the murder of a physicist working for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. An ambigram representing the word  Illuminati, referring to a centuries-old secret society,  has been branded onto the victims chest. In addition, the director of CERN soon learns that a canister filled with a type of matter that has the destructive power equal to a nuclear bomb has been stolen from CERN and  hidden somewhere in Vatican City. The director calls in  Robert Langdon, an expert on archaic religious symbolism, to help unravel the various clues and find the canister. Themes What follows is a fast-paced thriller focused on Langdons attempts to discover who is pulling the strings within the Illuminati  and how far their influence goes. Its major themes are religion versus science, skepticism versus faith, and the hold that powerful people and institutions have over the people they supposedly serve. Positive Reviews Angels and Demons  is an intriguing thriller for the way in which it mixes religious and historical elements with a sense of foreboding. It introduced the general public to an ages-old secret society, and was a unique entry into the world of conspiracy theory mysteries.  While the book may not be  great literature  per se, it is great entertainment. Publishers Weekly had this to say:   Well plotted and explosively paced.  Crammed with Vatican intrigue and hi-tech drama, Brown’s tale is laced with twists and shocks that keep the reader wired right up until the final revelation. Packing the novel with sinister figures worthy of a Medici, Brown sets an explosive pace through a Michelin-perfect Rome. Negative Reviews The book received its share of criticism, mainly for its historical inaccuracies presented as fact, a criticism that would carry over into The Da Vinci Code, which played even more fast and loose with history and religion. Some Catholics took offense at Angels and Demons, and with its subsequent sequels, stating that the book is nothing but a smear campaign of their beliefs. Conversely,  the books emphasis on secret societies, alternative interpretations of history, and conspiracy theories might strike pragmatic readers as more of a fantasy than a fact-based thriller. Finally, Dan Brown doesnt hold back as far as violence is concerned. Some readers might object to   or find disturbing the graphic nature of Browns writing. Still,  Angels and Demons has sold millions of copies worldwide, and remains a popular read  with lovers of conspiracy-laced thrillers.