String, Straightedge

Using only three simple tools -- the string, the straightedge, and the shadow -- men discovered the basic principles and constructions of elementary geometry more than two thousand years ago. This engrossing book reveals how these discoveries were made and shows how they were related to the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. The fabric of the story is woven out of archeological and historical records and of legends about the major men of mathematics. By re constructing the events as they might have happened, Julia Diggins enables an attentive reader to easily follow the pattern of reasoning that leads to an ingenious proof of the Pythagorean theorem, an appreciation of the significance of the golden mean in art and architecture, and the construction of the five regular solids.