Of course, it is possible to live without knowing every item in 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Math & the Arts. However, just dipping into this collection is likely to open up new perspectives for the reader on the beauties and underlying structures of our world.
No math education is necessary to understand many of these little two-to-three-page entries. The most mathematically demanding chapters require a basic grasp of algebra and geometry. John D. Barrow (Mathletics) is a Cambridge University mathematics professor and author of more than 19 books. He has a clear and pleasantly relaxed writing style that inspires confidence and curiosity.
There is no particular order to the entries, though many of them relate to each other. His definitions of "the arts" and "math" are generous, covering all kinds of beauty, patterns and designs alongside physics, engineering and technology. He discusses logical paradoxes, infinity in the forms of a wedding cake and a hotel, lace-up shoes and the identifying fractal structure of Jackson Pollock paintings. How does a dancer appear to pause midair in the middle of a grand jeté? What makes music appealing? Where should you stand to get the best view of one of those public statues on a tall pedestal? Why are qualities like beauty, truth or genius listable but not quantifiable? Not everyone will find all 100 topics fascinating, but anyone can find plenty of food for thought and wonder in the majority of them. --Sara Catterall