Things to make and do in the Fourth Dimension- Matt Parker #Review

There are only 10 types of people in the world – those who understand binary, and those who don’t.  And so the book starts with 'zeroth chapter' as 0 has a significant value.

Mathematics is a rapidly evolving field, Matt Parker here necessarily tries to remind us of that truth. This book operates as a tour bus for readers who want to learn more about a wide variety of mathematical topics and how it can be fun.

For instance, the number 111,111,111 multiplied by the same gives 12345678987654321 which is quite pleasing.  Some more such tricks are added in the chapter. Another one which is quite interesting is 333. When these 3 digits are added, it gives 9. Dividing 333 by 9 gives 37 and this number results regardless of the digit we use. You can try with 888 and divide it by 24.

The author goes on to say that Mathematics is about adding new rules and see what happens on breaking them!

On the fun aspect to his narration we are asked to visit the website of NASA which host 'astronomy pictures daily- https://apod.nasa.go/htmltest.gifcity/sqrt2.1mil- and upon visiting you will be treated with "The Square Root of Two to 1 Million Digits". These digits are a whopping page consuming. Nevertheless, NASA says it is for fun and it really is.

One more fun you can try out is 3(3+1)x (2x3+1) / 6 = 14

With Paul Erdos commenting the discovery of the century as Ramanujan, an anecdote of an event in which mathematician Thomas Hardy visits an ailing Ramnujan is quoted. Thomas Hardy told Ramanujan that the taxi number in which he came was rather boring. It was 1729, to which Ramanujan quipped at once, "This is the smallest number which could be written as the sum of 2 cube numbers in 2 different ways". They are 9^3+10^3 and 1^3+12^3. The genius to the fore!

Parker also discusses the honeycomb conjecture and Thomas Hales. The honeycomb conjecture asks us to minimize the perimeter of a connected planar region, relative to its ability to cover the plane without overlap. There is this mention about why circular wheels rotate while square ones do not. In physics we have the answer based on friction which is minimum with circle. Here the author describes it circle geometry not allowing the change in centre of mass (while rotating).  The CMS changes when it is square or any other shape and the illustration is very satisfying.

Quite common with puzzles is the pizza cutting in equal halves or other shapes. Parker illustrates them with so many shapes and divisions with constant width. For a regular polygon with odd number of sides one can flip just under half the edge inside and make corresponding polygon/folding or flexing.

This new thing called 'lune' can be witnessed if one draws two straight lines in the balloon. The kind of triangle one can make out from a sphere has also been the subject of discussion in Mario Livio's "Is God a Mathematician". Enough matter is there in the book for these parameters.

A strange question: Is it possible to fit an object through itself? (Say can you fit a cube through a hole in the cube of same size). Solved by Prince Rupert there is enough discussion on ways to slice a cube along with reference to the shadow of a cube which turns out to be hexagonal. Heard of Rupert's cube?

The discussion on Platonic solids is exhaustive too. The vertices, edges, faces, sides of several important shapes/geometries are well discussed. For a chemist this can assume significance as it can throw some light on to the crystal structure that just change name upon distribution of  atoms. (like wurtzite and anti-wurtzite).  The Octahedron has four triangles per vertex and icosahedron five.

The Herpes virus which was my guest last December finds a mention too, but only in terms of geometrical shape -Twenty icosahedron.  These viruses just join the vertices to make a large structure which usually looks very beautiful. (we have been fed with so much on the present virus structure of 2020).

Also the bacteria are able to knot the DNA to make their population felt. If they are unable to unknot they cease to function! One of the best reference to this concept is the mathematical way to make the cancerous cells forget to knot! Makes out so much sense. If they forget to  unknot they also might cease to function. How much mathematics has a role to play is quite appreciable.

About graph theory the author dedicates a chapter and cites a few books to read like "how to draw a straight line"- by Alfred Kempe!

When Kepler lost his wife he used statistical skill with mathematical model to find a new one and it took two years to get that. And it occurred to me that present data garnered by Facebook and Google can be used to achieve that goal in quite a square root time (of 2).

We usually associate pi with circular radius and other factors connected with circle. But here was a new thing : 1+1/4 +1/9+1.16 = Pi^2 /6.  How does pi prop us suddenly here. The author leaves us to ponder over this question which is highly significant.

The last few chapters really made good reading with reference to Algorithm, Avicenna, Bernoulli, Mobuis (and Listing the discoverer of the strip but named after Mobius), Negative numbers etc.  The author has set up a site to justify his book which is makeanddo4d.com

As promised in the title, the book gives us some things to make and do. Building a tesseract, a hyper cube,  out of pipe cleaners and drinking straws might prove good for students who want to model them. There are also some fun ideas for knitted and crocheted mathematics.  Many of the puzzles and creations are also available on the book's website if you don't want to cut up your book.

If you are a hesitant around mathematics, Parker has  enough enthusiasm for you, and it is contagious.

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl #Review

Humans in suffering tend to feel hopeless with a deep sense of failure. MAN's SEARCH FOR MEANING (Frankl, 1984) is a helpful book during such times: it is highly probable that one would find a solution to their depressed feelings, if the book is read actively.

Written by Austrian neurologist-psychiatrist and a Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl, this book is simple yet intense and reflective. Frankl is the founder of Logotherapy, a form of existential psychology. Awarded with several accolades, his books and talks are the most inspiring on finding meaning in life and in suffering.

The book stands out extraordinarily as Frankl, by narrating his life instances in the Auschwitz concentration camp, presents the remarkable idea of how we can choose to see a purpose or meaning in any situation, including the worst conditions. He descriptively illustrates his personal experiences and observations of minute human changes which infuses hope into the reader.

With rich primary and secondary data, Frankl puts forward his ideas in three sections. The qualitative methodology utilized has smoothly fused his thoughts through these three parts, clarifying Nietzsche words, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” This book is a collaboration of Frankl's personal experiences and stories, references to other existential forerunners, quotes from humanistic and psychoanalytic schools, and excellent figurative examples. Many pathological terms have been used in the book, which are well explained by the author.

The first section describes the brutality every prisoner faced at concentration camps, Frankl being one of them for three years. As he realized their “naked existence,” Frankl begins by explaining how a prisoner passes through three major phases in the camp, and also how each phase transformed the prisoners from their previous lives and how they developed various pathologies. The prisoner was first in a state of shock, which was followed by the phase of developing apathy and finally, on being liberated, prisoners felt depersonalized at first and later manifested strong symptoms in differential ways.

Frankl here slowly introduces his first thoughts on these experiences. Though he has toned down the language of brutality, the message comes across loud that it was certainly the worst suffering one could imagine of.

At the end of section one, an active reader realizes the true meaning of life, of love (which is fairly depersonalized in the recent decades) and also how thankless we have become toward the little mercies in life.

An active reader also learns about “Logotherapy” that the author attempts to explain in the second section. The nature, meaning and goals are well detailed. Even the finest differences between psychoanalysis and Logotherapy are clearly specified. Frankl liberally introduces every concept of Logotherapy (such as the existential vacuum, responsibility of survival, existential frustration). He also describes the therapy process and techniques with some great figurative examples and case studies. A novice therapist may find these useful. However, he fails to explain how one can integrate these techniques with the conventional psychotherapeutic process.

Nevertheless, his strong request to re-humanize psychotherapy inspires us into a new direction of thought and practice.

The third aspect of the book is an attraction for readers wishing to apply the principles of Logotherapy on the self (to begin with): the section on tragic optimism elaborates it. The triad of pain, guilt and death is well justified, though further intensive reading is necessary for a practicing therapist.

This section is also useful for a therapist to understand how anticipatory anxieties, depression, obsessive behaviors, aggression, unemployment neurosis (and even Sunday neurosis) can be dealt with effectively through Logotherapy. Frankl takes the effort to explain how meaninglessness in life may not be pathological, but can certainly be pathogenic. However, this section is exhaustive to comprehend with the given information, and hence, would suggest further reading of the ‘Tragic Triad’ for a practitioner.

Having justified the idea of finding meaning in life, this book extends itself to coherently explain where and how one can find their purpose in life—reading this section of the book will most certainly spark a solution to every despaired reader. Frankl positively disregards a specific age group that can benefit from this book because he elucidates how old age and death must not be looked upon as an “end of opportunities and possibilities,” but as a repertoire of all the “potentials actualized, meanings fulfilled and values realized.”

He also explains how “suffering is not necessary to find meaning.” If suffering can be avoided, meaningfulness would lie in attacking the cause of suffering; but if it can't, meaningfulness would lie in changing the way we look at the situation and unlock the actual meaning lying “dormant” in that suffering! This relates very well to the “Serenity Prayer.”

Readers having knowledge in the Indian philosophy may easily connect the ideas of this book to the Bhagavad-Gita (Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, 1978) wherein Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna (and the humankind thereby) about how he could find meaning in his dreadful situation, how his suffering may be looked upon differently and how one can elevate oneself from hopelessness and anguish by realizing the purpose of one's existence on earth.

Clinically as a limitation, the book lacks presentation of validity, procedure and practice of Logotherapy. The therapy doesn't easily allow a quantitative inquiry: it is a philosophical approach to the human inner-world (as Frankl describes it). Despite the shortcomings, the spirit of the idea is noteworthy.

Recent researches have also well supported Frankl's ideas. Thagard (2012) in The Brain and The Meaning of Life, argues how brain science matters for fundamental issues about meaning in life.

Positive correlations have been found between search for meaning with other variables such as positive affect (King et al., 2006), well-being (Mascaro and Rosen, 2005), and self-evaluation (To et al., 2014). Steger et al. (2008) found that people lacked the search for meaning in life through a life-span perspective (Steger et al., 2007).

Ubiquitously, I would strongly recommend this book as the first step into existential psychology and urge the reader to continue reading Frankl's other books.

Quoted Author

Sunfall - Jim Al-Khalili #Review

This is probably JAK's first fictitious novel brought out in a story-telling style. Nearly ten chapters from the beginning would let one grope for the matter the author is trying to convey. However, this would also cover some scary facts about the Earth's magnetic field flip and the ignorant powerful politicians unable to understand the seriousness. (Could not help but remember the HBO's narration of the Russian leader's satire over Chernobyl and presently the underscored warning by the Chinese leaders over Covid-19)

The Earth’s magnetic field flickers and fades, with deadly radiation and particles in the solar wind reaching the Earth’s surface, and life on Earth is endangered as the flip of the POLES is on the anvil. Jim suggests that the North would become South as it happens every few times a million years and the last time it flipped was some 40,000 years back. But the irony is that it might take about 10 years to get the flip complete, during which time we would be exposed to some dangerous change in the life-style on the Earth (Read climate catastrophe and all equipment dependent on GPS).

Given our thin understanding of how the planet’s protective field is generated and maintained, and why it regularly flips its polarity over geological time, the scenario is plausible. Jim’s intimate acquaintance with the scientific community now kicks in to create a series of realistic vignettes of young scientists reacting to the challenge and struggling to come up with an effective response.

In the early chapters, sometimes the physics and technology get too mundane but Shireen’s escape from Tehran with old- school deception of the agents was enjoyable. The slow pace of the initial chapters shifts gear after the devastation in Rio; the motor bike escape of Sarah was enthralling; the crash landing of Indian Airlines etc. His experience with various science bodies (one such is LIFE SCIENTIFIC) is sufficient to prove right his apprehension about the world body giving dumb-response to the dangers lying ahead.

When scientists are ignored and the politicians or beureaucrats play spoil-sport, the blame-game takes a surrealistic turn.

The character Marc Bruckner mentioned with colour blindness defect might be a reference to John Dalton, the atom discoverer who himself was colour blind but managed to write a scientific paper on colour blindness- a.k.a Daltonism. The author describes Marc Bruckner’s theoretical work to create the ODIN project (fictional though) artistic in a beautiful paragraph. Theoretical physics is highly esoteric and the popularity of this work is well preserved and projected in this book. Peter Higgs managed to predict Higgs particle almost 50 years ahead using mathematics alone.

The use of quantum entanglement (QE) to interact with the locked-down AI at the Mag8 in Jordan, from Washington DC requires one to understand the weirdness of quantum entanglement. QE basically equals magic in our daily ‘classical’ world. In Quantum Mechanics, one object can actually be in two or more places at the same time, spin in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions at the same time, walk through solid walls as though invisible, communicate instantaneously with its paired object even separated by galactic distances faster than the speed of light etc. The latter is called quantum entanglement and has been actually proven.

The author has paid tribute to a lot of people, from his sister to some wonderful scientists that he has interviewed in his popular radio show, The Life scientific.  Jim is of Iraqi-Persian ancestry and in his own Life Scientific interview, has spoken about how he never went back to his land of birth and early childhood. Jim has also spoken about the legacy of Arabic science which once had dominated the world; science was never a sole occidental construct but legacy of many civilizations over history of mankind.

The Future of Humanity - Michio Kaku # Review

This book would go to describe the human society thriving beyond our planet, beginning with the concept of interplanetary near future, on to the entire universe and further beyond. Beyond refers to the highly speculative concepts of seeding new Universes when ours ultimately dies. It is the story of human development as Michio Kaku sees it.

The new planets would basically be dead stars or pulsars that have exploded in a supernova killing everything. And about 4500 of them have been discovered so far.

The first chapter deals with the brief history of rocketry, primarily mentioning Robert Goddard and how he was often ridiculed when he talked about entry into space. Only in 1969, did the New York Times offer an apology for doubting his credibility when it published an admission that rocket propulsion can indeed function in a vacuum. This chapter further covers mining the asteroids, Space Exploration society. The author mentions Newtons' vision becoming reality with the launch of Sputnik.

Some background Astronomy for the lay reader and overview of some upcoming missions to the outer solar system has been included. Kaku delves into peripheral topics of artificial intelligence, self-replicating robots, machines with self-awareness and then on to theories of consciousness along with quantum computing basics. Indeed, he suggests these will be vital components of space travel - with an exception mentioning Alan Shepherd taking Golf Stick to the Moon without the knowledge of the authorities.

A Russian scientist, Nikolai Kardashev has created a scale of civilizations: Type I uses all of the energy from the light provided by its star; Type II uses all the energy the sun produces (think fusion); Type III uses all the energy in the entire galaxy. Obviously we're not even a Type I civilization since we don't use all the sunlight the Sun provides. We're about a 0.7 civilization. Kaku boldly suggests a Type IV civilization in which the culture utilizes the energy of the entire universe. From here, he paints a picture of possible human evolution in the context of string theory, dark energy/matter and hyperspace. Ultimately, he suggests, an advanced version of humanity could escape the death of our universe by birthing a new one. (Read Parallel Universe)

The concept of using energy from the Universe gets right fantasy. There are peaks in the Polar regions where the Sun never sets and a 1000 solar panels could create a steady supply of energy, but he cautions the dangers as the Polar regions might come under 'mining'.

With a complete map of the human brain it could be possible to beam personalities at light speed to robotic avatars based on exoplanets via a network of relay stations located on “stationary” comets. A reference is made to the mirror that was left on the Moon and laser beam was used to reflect from that part to allow humans to measure the orbital radius. A few measurements and extrapolations later would allow us to calculate moon's previous orbit or the drift if any.

It is rather confusing to know that the Moon has a different composition than the Earth has, while there are theories that the Moon was an off-shot object of the Earth (Read Thea collision).

Mining the Heavens is simply superb to read. That Asteroid Bennu was explored and the possible mechanism of bringing the Noble ores to the Earth makes interesting reading. The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) has a few stalwarts up its lounge to accomplish that but the time mentioned is over a century.

Ceres is the Goddess of Agriculture and thus we have Cereals.

That Jupiter is our guardian angel, deflecting most asteroids, comets and other space clutter that could kill us, is now established fact. Earth is a 'Goldilocks Planet', not too hot, not cold, with an atmosphere that's no too dense and a magnetic field and an ozone layer that deflects ultra-violet rays from frying us alive. It is expected that many Goldilocks planets are there in our galaxy. Possibly hundreds of thousands, but a lot depends on how we hear from outside world (Read SETI).

Use of Robots to accomplish 3D (Dull Dirty and Dangerous) jobs can be utilized for space exploration. The concept of space elevators is written down owing to the pressure it would create at its center leading to collapse is a nice mention. A lot more simple information make us feel that we are capable of understanding this Universe and would never be able to conquer it.

Read three months back, the time for review just got ripened!