The Divine Proportion

This may be the only book I ever read that actually made me mad at the author. I don't use much beyond the pythagorean theorem on regular basis, but it was pretty clear to me that Huntley was setting up only those example which fit his ideals. I found myself increasingly annoyed when he kept feigning amazement at finding the golden ratio in his carefully picked examples.

I like math. I like understanding how things work. I regularly find occurrences of repeating patterns and forms in a variety of places in art, nature and science. I hated this book.

Also, favorite quote so far, page 15, about the subconscious: "The dipstick of introspection cannot plumb this layer of the psyche."

Uh, yeah.

As a non-mathematician I was a bit intimidated to read this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. Huntley is very passionate about his subject and uses writings from others to help his purpose. All in all, this book will make one appreciate beauty in a new way, as well as the sciences.

I think this book is trying to relate mathematics to human experience and possibly philosophy.