matthewhawkinsblog

The First Six Books of The Elements of Euclid by Oliver Byrne, republished beautifully and affordably by Taschen as a facsimile of the 1847 version. Featured as a continuation of the Edward R. Tufte post, I would like to take this opportunity to showcase a book featured in Envisioning Information 1990.

I have recently been working on some drawings of manicured topiary bushes and it was necessary for me to fall back upon my vague recollection of basic trigonometry combined with online tutorials to work out how the shadows should fall. Despite studying A Level Mathematics I never really got to grips with the topic and I genuinely believe that Byrne's engaging and predominantly visual explanation in which coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters for the greater ease of learners would have attributed to a far greater understanding of maths and its applications. Still, it is never too late to learn.