I have just finished reading a book called "The King Of Infinite Space. It is a biography of Donald Coxeter a mathematical student of geometry in dimensions higher than our ordinarily visible three. He lived to the age of 93. Very few lay people have heard of him but he is famous in the world of mathematics for his study of geometry. At the end of his life he had garnered numerous academic awards for his work. In part he explained the mathematics (or geometry) of Escher's art work. The interesting thing is that in spite of their deep friendship and similar goals, Coxeter ended up a revered professor at Toronto University and Escher spent his last years in a nut house. This in spite of the fundamentals of both of their work being much the same. One using logic and the other using internal understanding. It could easily have been the other way around. Coxeter's study of geometry provided a fundamental understanding of the figures by studying the algebra of Escher's art while Escher arrived at the same conclusions through sheer perseverance.
Escher's art work is another proof that we're all on this flight together.
Dick
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"King of infinite space" is a quotation from Hamlet: "I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams".
Hey, sometimes the degree in English comes in handy!
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