Books > Euclid's Window >

Excerpts

Contents

Introduction

I THE STORY OF EUCLID

1. The First Revolution
2. The Geometry of Taxation
3. Among the Seven Sages
4. The Secret Society
5. Euclid's Manifesto
6. A Beautiful Woman, a Library, and the End of Civilization

II THE STORY OF DESCARTES

7. The Revolution in Place
8. The Origin of Latitude and Longitude
9. The Legacy of the Rotten Romans
10. The Discreet Charm of the Graph
11. A Soldier's Story
12. Iced by the Snow Queen

III THE STORY OF GAUSS

13. The Curved Space Revolution
14. The Trouble with Ptolemy
15. A Napoleonic Hero
16. The Fall of the Fifth Postulate
17. Lost in Hyperbolic Space
18. Some Insects Called the Human Race
19. A Tale of Two Aliens
20. After 2,000 Years, a Face-lift

IV THE STORY OF EINSTEIN

21. Revolution at the Speed of Light
22. Relativity's Other Albert
23. The Stuff of Space
24. Probationary Technical Expert, Third Class
25. A Relatively Euclidean Approach
26. Einstein's Apple
27. From Inspiration to Perspiration
28. Blue Hair Triumphs

V THE STORY OF WITTEN

29. The Weird Revolution
30. Ten Things I Hate About Your Theory
31. The Necessary Uncertainty of Being
32. Clash of the Titans
33. A Message in a Kaluza-Klein Bottle
34. The Birth of Strings
35. Particles, Schmarticles!
36. The Trouble with Strings
37. The Theory Formerly Known As Strings

Epilogue
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index