The Hidden Geometry of Everything

How much geometry do you remember from your secondary school classes? Reading mathematician Jordan Ellenberg’s new book shows how much unconscious geometry I’ve been doing this last year. Just keeping the required six feet of distance from other people while standing in lines has been an exercise in distance and angles – especially when it’s one of those zig zag lines so you’ve got people to calibrate your distance from all around you. And face masks –so much trial-and-error figuring out just the right angle of the fabric at the nose and chin, and tension on the straps. Geometry also underpins that famous COVID curve we were all obsessed with flattening. Jordan Ellenberg’s new book is called “Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else.” Ellenberg is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.