Flatterland

I definately enjoyed this book and I think it was a very good attempted sequel to the brilliant Flatland. In essence the book follows a descendent of A. Square (he is disgraced and locked in a psyche ward). After a night were her parents were constantly harasing her she is visited by a multi-dimensional being much like Square was in the original. Here is where it parallels. The character in conjunction with her multi-dimensional guide shows her theoretical mathematical notions and "worlds" that little is known of or that is generally thought to be impossible. The book hits on many advanced notions of math, and is definately not an easy read for someone with an interest in math.I took off 1 star for the following reasons. (1) Some of the math is very difficult to understand and is very advanced for the casual reader. While I guess it does make sense to do it this way since theory of the 3rd dimension (sphere) was not known or believed in during Abott's day. (2) The book certainly does not have the same ingenius level of political satire and commenatry as the original. Flatland was filled with social and political commentary and accusations of government coverups as well as social inequality during 1800s England and this books does not even even come close in doing this in any spirit. Again, I guess the author knew his limitations and this makes sense.This book is definately a great read and is really really interesting. Some parts of it can be very hard to get through as the math can get very murky and in depth. The book is definately a very fast read and the ending is quite good. The overall spirit of Flatland is present in this book, but I definately recommend reading the original one before reading this one to get a hang of whats going on to some tangential degree.Definately get this book, I am glad I read it and I loved it.

The heroine Vikki Line is a great-great-granddaughter of the narrator A. Square of Edwin Abbott's classic book, "Flatland." The teenaged Flatlander heroine goes to a tour to higher dimensional worlds guided by a Space Hopper. She visits the Fractal Forest, Topologica, Platterland, Cat Country, the Domain of Hawk King, etc., and learns, together with the reader, about many concepts of modern mathematics and physics. The author Ian Stewart, a winner of the Royal Society's Michael Faraday Medal for furthering the public understanding of science, writes the story in the style of "Alice in Wonderland" by using enjoyable wordplay and putting exotic and cute creatures he invented to familiarize the difficult concepts.Some topics are treated in a manner to give the reader good understanding, but others are described only superficially. There are simple errors in giving a number for fractal dimension and describing the behavior of the decoherence time. (I leave it to the reader as exercises to spot them.) The author explains the particle nature of the photon by the uncommon use of the process of electron-impact photon emission, while the orthodox explanation uses the inverse process, i.e., the photoelectric effect.In spite of these minor defects, this is a joyous read for holidays. The heroine is depicted as such a clever, adventurous and charming linear being (near the end of the story she comes to know that she is something superior to a line) that I think how I would have been happy if I had had a girlfriend like her in my youth. Her guide and tutor, the Space Hopper, often shows a big grin, reminding us of the popular physicist and good lecturer Richard Feynman. In the short last chapter, the reader feels it important that more of us, "Planiturthians," become aware of the possible ten-dimensional reality of our physical universe, which Vikki learned at the final stage of her tour. Thus, I would like to recommend this book to every curious mind.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flatterly, that expertly executed imitation must certainly be the most...flattering.In this way, excellent flattery is what this book both promises and delivers in a big way.After having read the Edwin Abbott Abbott book Flatland in 1962, ideas germinated in Ian Stewart's head for three decades before he took pen in hand and created, Flatterland...a sequel just as good as the original.For those who don't know, Flatland is the 1884 story of square living in a flat society, Flatland, who comes to learn about higher dimensions, with his friend the sphere.Set one hundred years later, Flatterland picks up the story with Victoria the line segment, Mr. Square's grand daughter, who re-visits high dimensions given modern understanding of what those higher dimensions are.And even though some discussions contain pretty academic mathematical theory, on the whole, the book manages that unique accessibility and magic that comes when true understanding is combined with a great ability to communicate.If all Stewart managed was to create a modern tour of physics and math touching on such diverse topics as how the universe came to be, whether we really do live in a "uni"verse,contemporary M brane theory, string theory and how other dimensions relate to all these issues, the book would merit five stars.However, and to Stewart's credit, the book actually also touches on higher dimensions as a metaphor for overturning two dimensional ways of looking at things...just like the original. If Abbott was around to read this book one can't help but think that he and Mr. Square would be very pleased indeed.

Ian Stewart's Flatterland has been around since 2001, but I've only just come across it. It is, of course a sequel to the famous novella Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott dating back to 1884. The original Flatland is perhaps the archetype of a book that is based on a brilliant idea, but be distinctly dreary to read. So the key question here is whether Stewart escaped this limitation in his sequel.We start here with the (literally, not metaphorically) two-dimensional characters familiar to anyone who has read Flatland. The original both explored the nature of existing in two dimensions (and how the inhabitants would see a three-dimensional object), and provided Victorian social commentary, with female Flatlanders both physically different to males (lines, rather than polygons) and limited in what they can do by society. Stewart only mentions the social side in passing, but instead focuses on mathematical experiences.Guided by a space hopper (the 60s bouncy toy), the central character Victoria Line is taken out of Flatland to experience a wide range of different mathematical spaces. They start off with the conventional three-dimensional space Vicky's ancestor came across (the original book was supposedly written by A. Square, who Stewart tells us was Albert Square) but then go on to a whole range of different mathematical spaces, from fractal space to topological space, finishing off by straying into physics by bringing in Schrödinger's cat, Minkowski space and time travel via the special and general theories of relativity.All the way through, Stewart seems to be trying to outdo Abbott's weak attempts at humour by piling on cultural references (we've seen a couple above) and resorting to often excruciating puns. This can be distinctly wearing for the reader, though there are occasional gems such as 'he was the black shape of the family'.If you can cope with the barrage of irritating humour, some parts of the book work really well at introducing concepts such as topology - this section is based in part on the Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In fact, Stewart clearly takes a significant lead from mathematician Lewis Carroll's approach, though unfortunately lacks Carroll's peak writing skills. This is more Sylvie and Bruno than Alice or Snark. Other parts of the book, though, fail to get the message across. We are dealing here with quite abstruse mathematical concepts and while the portrayal through various characters and their worlds make good use of those concepts in you already know them, they don't act as a useful introduction, leaving the reader potentially baffled.Like the original Flatland, this is an interesting and innovative attempt. It has always seemed that fiction should be a good route to explain science or maths painlessly and entertainingly. But for me, the painful punning and the relentless jokiness was too much, while the exposition was often not clear enough to do the job. A for effort, though.

This book is dreadful. There's no proper narrative - it's a disconnected series of mathematical analogies through which the protagonist teleports with the help of a living Space Hopper.Furthermore the author is addicted to puns, and possesses the awkward, naïve wit [stereo?]typical of an academic. Pummeling the reader relentlessly with groan-inducing puns page after page, such is Ian Stewart's addiction that superfluous characters (if I can call them that) are introduced solely on the supposed merit of the pun.One example is the Mud Hutter (cf. Mad Hatter), which 'goes around making mud huts', with no bearing on the analogy at hand.Eventually I surrendered and closed the book about halfway through, never to be opened again.If you liked Flatland and want more of the same, check out Dionys Burger's sequel 'Sphereland', which is great.

The book advertised as a sequel to Flatland but lacks everything Flatland has.There is basically no plot, except some bare bone stuff to lead from one explanation of dimensional concepts to the next (what is intended to hold the semi-essays together is Vikkie Line a grand-grand-child of Abotts A.Sphere from Flatland ... Vikkie emerges into Spaceland and meets Space-Hopper who explains things line n-dimensions or n-fractional dimensions, etc.)The explanations are bit like essays, their style somewhere between childlike and the stuff you read in mass market science magazines.Now and then the auther manages some invent some witty and funny play of words, especially when it comes to the characters, so you can't help but smile in a couple of places.So the book may be ok if you are not from a technical profession and looking some easy to read math and science articles, e.g. to read a chapter on the bus each day, and if you do not expect any useful plot.But nontheless, the book comes nowhere near Flatland. Compared to that it makes the impression of just having been stiched togeteher from a couple of magazine essays.

Ottimo libro che introduce ad argomenti di matematica avanzata in maniera divertente. Lo consiglierei a tutti le persone curiose del mondo delle scienze.

Im Gegensatz zu Flatland hat das Buch nur eine Behelfshandlung, auch finde ich das Verhalten der Hauptperson nicht immer glaubhaft. Allerdings habe ich das Buch gelesen, um vielleicht einige anschauliche Erklärungen für bestimmte mathematische Konzepte von Raum und Geometrie zu bekommen und das hat das Buch erreicht.