PENTAGONS AND PENTAGRAMS: An Illustrated History

Maor expertly weaves together the mathematics, history and cultural use of pentagons and its close cousin the pentagram which has inspired philosophers to artists and naturalists for millennia. Beautifully complemented by Eugen Jost's illustrations, plus musical examples, photographs and a colour plate section, despite the pentagon's wide-ranging history, no single book has explored its important role in shaping various cultures until now. In a sweeping view of the five-sided polygon, revealing its intriguing geometric properties and traversing time, Maor discusses the early Pythagoreans who ascribed to the pentagon mythical attributes, adopted it as their emblem, and figured out its construction with a straightedge and compass. He looks at how a San Diego housewife uncovered four previously unknown types of pentagonal tilings, and how in 1982 a scientist's discovery of fivefold symmetries in certain alloys caused an uproar in crystallography and led to a Nobel Prize. Maor discusses the pentagon's impact on many buildings, from medieval fortresses to the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the book's puzzles and mazes offer fun challenges for readers, with solutions given in an index. Colour, 166pp.