Suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of engineering, physics, and mathematics and scientific researchers of all types, this is the first authoritative text on invisibility and the science behind it. More than 100 full-color illustrations, plus exercises with solutions. 2010 edition.

These three essays by an eminent scientist explore the nature, origin, and development of our concepts of space from the points of view of the senses, history, and physics. They examine the subject from every direction, in a manner suitable for both undergraduates and other readers. 25 figures.1906 edition.

This re-examination of alchemical engravings of the late Renaissance uses an innovative semiotic method in analysing their geometrical and optical rhetorical devices. The images are contextualised within contemporary metaphysics, specifically, the discourse of light, and in Protestant reformism.

Arkan Zeytinoglu calls his projects "built theory." Since many years, he has dealt with "the geometry of light", which describes best his special approach to architecture. But as an architect, Zeytinoglu, who studied at University of Technology TU Graz under Günther Domenig and later on at Cooper Union in New York, devotes himself mainly to building activities. Since his office’s foundation in 1995, realizations have included works in the field of hotels and resorts, gastronomy, and luxury residences. In May 2010, the internationally much-noticed Austrian pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai (ARGE SPAN & Zeytinoglu) was inaugurated. The book contains all essential realizations as well as a work list and an outlook at the buildings to be completed soon.

This book uses art photography as a point of departure for learning about physics, while also using physics as a point of departure for asking fundamental questions about the nature of photography as an art. Although not a how-to manual, the topics center around hands-on applications, most-often illustrated by photographic processes that are inexpensive and easily accessible to students (including a versatile new process developed by the author, and herein first described in print). A central theme is the connection between the physical interaction of light and matter on the one hand, and the artistry of the photographic processes and their results on the other. Geometry and the Nature of Light focuses on the physics of light and the optics of lenses, but also includes extended discussions of topics less commonly covered in a beginning text, including symmetry in art and physics, different physical processes of the scattering of light, photograms (photographic shadow prints) and the nature of shadows, elements of 2-dimensional design, pinhole photography and the view camera. Although written at a beginning undergraduate level, the topics are chosen for their role in a more general discussion of the relation between science and art that is of interest to readers of all backgrounds and levels of expertise.

This review of literature on perspective constructions from the Renaissance through the 18th century covers 175 authors, emphasizing Peiro della Francesca, Guidobaldo del Monte, Simon Stevin, Brook Taylor, and Johann Heinrich. It treats such topics as the various methods of constructing perspective, the development of theories underlying the constructions, and the communication between mathematicians and artisans in these developments.

Mathematical billiards describe the motion of a mass point in a domain with elastic reflections off the boundary or, equivalently, the behavior of rays of light in a domain with ideally reflecting boundary. From the point of view of differential geometry, the billiard flow is the geodesic flow on a manifold with boundary. This book is devoted to billiards in their relation with differential geometry, classical mechanics, and geometrical optics. Topics covered include variational principles of billiard motion, symplectic geometry of rays of light and integral geometry, existence and nonexistence of caustics, optical properties of conics and quadrics and completely integrable billiards, periodic billiard trajectories, polygonal billiards, mechanisms of chaos in billiard dynamics, and the lesser-known subject of dual (or outer) billiards. The book is based on an advanced undergraduate topics course. Minimum prerequisites are the standard material covered in the first two years of college mathematics (the entire calculus sequence, linear algebra). However, readers should show some mathematical maturity and rely on their mathematical common sense. A unique feature of the book is the coverage of many diverse topics related to billiards, for example, evolutes and involutes of plane curves, the four-vertex theorem, a mathematical theory of rainbows, distribution of first digits in various sequences, Morse theory, the Poincare recurrence theorem, Hilbert's fourth problem, Poncelet porism, and many others. There are approximately 100 illustrations. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers interested in ergodic theory and geometry. This volume has been copublished with the Mathematics Advanced Study Semesters program at Penn State.

This book aims to integrate, in a pedagogical and technical manner, with detailed derivations, all essential principles of fundamental theoretical physics as developed over the past 100 years. It covers: Quantum physics and Stability Problems in the Quantum World, Minkowski Spacetime Physics Particle Classifications and Underlying Symmetries, Symmetry Violations, Quantum Field Theory of Particle Interactions, Higgs Field Physics, Supersymmetry: A Theory with Mathematical Beauty Superstrings, Gravity and Supergravity, General Relativity Predictions, including Frame Dragging, Intricacies of Black Hole Physics, Perturbative and Non-perturbative Quantum Gravity Intricacies of Modern Cosmology, including Inflation and Power Spectrum If you are in the process of learning, or are lecturing on, any of the subjects above, then this is your book - irrespective of your specialty. With over-specialization and no time to master all the fields given above, students, and perhaps many physicists, may find it difficult to keep up with all the exciting developments going on, and are even less familiar with their underlying technicalities: e.g. they might have heard that the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, but have no idea on how this number is actually computed. This unique book will be of great value to graduate students, instructors and researchers interested in the intricacies and derivations of the many aspects of modern fundamental theoretical physics. And, although a graduate level book, some chapters may also be suitable for advanced undergraduates in their final year.

An undergraduate textbook devoted exclusively to relationships between mathematics and art, Viewpoints is ideally suited for math-for-liberal-arts courses and mathematics courses for fine arts majors. The textbook contains a wide variety of classroom-tested activities and problems, a series of essays by contemporary artists written especially for the book, and a plethora of pedagogical and learning opportunities for instructors and students. Viewpoints focuses on two mathematical areas: perspective related to drawing man-made forms and fractal geometry related to drawing natural forms. Investigating facets of the three-dimensional world in order to understand mathematical concepts behind the art, the textbook explores art topics including comic, anamorphic, and classical art, as well as photography, while presenting such mathematical ideas as proportion, ratio, self-similarity, exponents, and logarithms. Straightforward problems and rewarding solutions empower students to make accurate, sophisticated drawings. Personal essays and short biographies by contemporary artists are interspersed between chapters and are accompanied by images of their work. These fine artists--who include mathematicians and scientists--examine how mathematics influences their art. Accessible to students of all levels, Viewpoints encourages experimentation and collaboration, and captures the essence of artistic and mathematical creation and discovery. Classroom-tested activities and problem solving Accessible problems that move beyond regular art school curriculum Multiple solutions of varying difficulty and applicability Appropriate for students of all mathematics and art levels Original and exclusive essays by contemporary artists Forthcoming: Instructor's manual (available only to teachers)