Part two of my current unemployment reading list is… Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension by Matt Parker. I first came across Mr Matt Parker via his numerous youtube videos. They are in the ‘funny math with often a bit of ridiculousness’ category. Through his videos, I eventually made my way to his first book and was amused enough that I will be on the lookout for his second one if I ever come across a used copy.
This book is great. It introduced a lot of elements from the math world that I knew only a small amount on. Therefore, I learned a fair bit related to knot theory, how graph theory can be used in higher dimensional geometry, and different types of infinities. Another reason why it’s a great read is because there is a fair bit of humour distributed distributed throughout the book; and by humour I mean dry math nerd jokes and puns. Most often casual math or science books are far too casual and hence they are dismissed by most; this book does give enough advanced details to make it challenging enough to keep one’s brain somewhat active.
There are a few typographical quirks with the book and any nerd who is into book layout and design would notice…
- The book starts with page 0… and on a left page as well. The recto-verso convention (for english language books) is that even pages are on the left (verso) and the odd pages on the right (recto). As of now, this is the only book that I own that does not follow the standard page numbering convention
- First chapter is chapter 0… I guess there is a deliberate theme here and the page numbering was a choice not an error
- The last chapter is n+1… as a math nerd I strangely appreciate this.
Anyways, here is a lecture he did at google about the book (with an audience that lacked a sense of humour)…
And some of my favourite other videos of his…
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