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"Personally, I’m prepared to take Ording’s word for it."

Me too, but this does sound rather interesting. Thanks for sharing, Terry.

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Intriguing. As a mathematician and an artist… I had to stop reading this halfway through the first time. When I came back later, I mentally drew a chart to help myself understand what had caused the angst on the first read through. So many names and weird trajectories! But when I concentrated harder and visualised all the connections, it was much better. (It was like you’d thrown a pack of cards at me and I was trying to make sense of them! Our brains all work SO differently.) Anyway, an interesting read. Thanks so much.

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Thanks, Beth. By names and weird trajectories, do you mean the connections between the ideas of these different authors? Perhaps I should have drawn a diagram, I just didn’t think of it. Apologies if it was confusing.

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All cool. Just a different way of approaching information. There were a heap of names and connections, quite apart from the ideas. It didn’t feel ‘logical’ to my poor brain. But I had more time the second read through and wasn’t as overwhelmed. Just different types of brains which is why I art and you write. (My sister’s brain is like yours. She’s a writer and a teacher too.)

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Thanks for the mention! I have enjoyed spending time with this book as well. I would love to hear an actual mathematician walk us through it some time.

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Jul 28·edited Jul 28Author

I was wondering if you had come across it. Some of the constraints are very inventive, aren't they. Good idea about what mathematicians think of it. There is a round up of excerpts of reviews here, some of which are by mathematicians: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780691185422/html Trouble is, we don't which bits of the reviews have been left out! There was a review in the NYRB, but I haven't logged I to read it yet.

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Jul 28Liked by Terry Freedman

"I’m reasonably certain that had the maths textbooks I was given in school been more like this I’d have done much better in my exams than I did." Yes, math teaches analytical thinking and logic--It's a shame that the practical applications are rarely impressed on students. I have never thought of applying mathematical formulas to writing but I will leave that to greater minds. Thanks Terry!

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Thanks Jim. I agree about the practical applications. I can still remember the square of the hypotenuse all these years later and I have NEVER had to use it. In my school, maths seemed to be there as a form of collective punishment. When I've finished the current batch of books I have to review, I'm going to read a book called Love Triangle, which I think is all about how useful geometry and trigonometry are in every day life.

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