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| 08-30-2002 | Previous edition: 08-29-2002 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Professor's new book hinges on geometry
Staff Writer Greg Frederickson hates geometric shapes. He hates them so much he has spent the last five years finding new ways to dissect them. Actually Fredrickson, a professor in the department of computer science, loves geometric shapes. He has also written two books on geometric dissection, the second of which will be published in early September. Geometric dissection is the process of using mathematics to dissect geometric shapes in order to form other geometric shapes. "It's this aspect of a puzzle, trying to get the number of pieces down." Dissections were popular in the early 20th century, appearing in periodicals courtesy of columnists Sam Loyd and Henry Ernest Dudeney, who placed an emphasis on minimalizing the number of pieces used to complete the dissection. Dissections have continued in their popularity, appearing mainly in mathematical publications. Frederickson was first introduced to dissections in high school, when his parents bought him a book written by Harry Lindgren. But he didn't really take an interest in them until he had graduated from college and was teaching junior high mathematics. He continues to utilize them in his lectures and recently returned from a conference on dissections in Europe. Frederickson's area of work is the analysis of algorithms, which may seem unrelated, but the mathematical principles of dissection are applicable to algorithms as well. Frederickson said that he has also become a better lecturer through writing these books because he was forced to write in a less formal manner. Frederickson's new book is titled "Hinged Dissections: Swinging and Twisting." These dissections increase the difficulty by connecting all the pieces together via hinges which can only be manipulated in one way to complete the change. Even for Frederickson, gathering enough information to compile a book proved to be a daunting task. "Five years ago, if you'd have asked me if it was possible to write a book on hinged dissections, I'd have said, 'You've got to be kidding me.'" But after countless hours of research, Frederickson discovered that he had compiled enough new information to merit a new book. "In the first book, it was mainly historical. The new book contains 80 to 90 percent new material." Frederickson said that there are over 500 figures to demonstrate the various examples in the book. This book isn't just for mathematicians, though. Frederickson said that it was written so that anyone who took a high school geometry class can follow along. Printer-friendly version |
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