000 01894 a2200241 4500
999 _c54698
_d54698
008 210321b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020 _a9781107564749
082 _a514.742
_bMUM
100 _aMumford, David
245 _a Indra's pearls: the vision of Felix Klein
260 _bCambridge University Press,
_c2015.
_a Cambridge;
300 _axix, 395 p. : ill. ;
_bpb,
_c26 cm.
365 _aGBP
_b38.00
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520 _aFelix Klein, one of the great nineteenth-century geometers, discovered in mathematics an idea prefigured in Buddhist mythology: the heaven of Indra contained a net of pearls, each of which was reflected in its neighbour, so that the whole Universe was mirrored in each pearl. Klein studied infinitely repeated reflections and was led to forms with multiple co-existing symmetries, each simple in itself, but whose interactions produce fractals on the edge of chaos. For a century these images, which were practically impossible to draw by hand, barely existed outside the imagination of mathematicians. However in the 1980s the authors embarked on the first computer exploration of Klein's vision, and in so doing found further extraordinary images of their own. Join the authors on the path from some basic mathemathical ideas to the simple algorithms that create the delicate fractal filigrees, most of which have never appeared in print before. Beginners can learn to understand what the images mean and follow the step-by-step instructions for writing computer programs that generate them. More advanced readers can see how the images relate to ideas that take them to the forefront of research.
650 _aKlein Felix 1849-1925
650 _aSymmetry
650 _aGeometry
650 _aIndra (Hindu deity)
700 _aSeries, Caroline
700 _aWright, David James
942 _2ddc
_cTD