Popular Science Review - The Zen of Magic Squares etc.

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Review - The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles & Stars - Clifford Pickover

Putting on a rating on this book has proved harder than practically any other on the site. You'll either love it - and if you do, it deserves that four star rating - or you'll be driven mad by it.

Starting with the magic square and its significance in history (did you know the first mention of a magic square in China dates back to 2200 BC?), Pickover takes us on a magic(al) mystery tour that expands to all types of strange shapes and hyperdimensional constructs with the only thing in common that, erm, the numbers in them add up to the same amount on different rows, columns and diagonals. (Or don't, depending on the kind of construct we're dealing with.)

Of course there's a lot more to it than that - fascinating symmetries, the significance of different sums, all sorts of esoterica - but should it be the case that you can't get excited about the fact that the numbers in each row, column and diagonal add up to the same total, it's rather inevitable that there will be a tendency to shrug the shoulders and say 'so what?'

That would be a pity - because there really is a beauty and strangeness about these forms that transcends their 'so-whatdom' - and Pickover is an absolute master of explaining why they're so wonderful.

A few readers may also be put off by the occasional slide into oriental philosophy, which occasionally gives a non-scientific feel to the book - but we have to accept that the magic square has a long association with mystical significance, whether or not the philosophical baggage is considered worthwhile or claptrap.

The only realistic recommendation is to try this book and see what it does for you!

Mathematical marmite? If you are puzzled by this assessment in the summary, you probably aren't from the UK. Marmite is a yeast-based product (originally derived from beer production waste) that is spread on bread/toast. It's something people either love or hate, so much so that the company has run very successful TV ad campaigns showing people absolutely hating the stuff...

Also in hardback:

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

See more about the author in the Clifford Pickover biography

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