“I’ve always loved math, and as a child I especially loved word problems about everyday things. The idea that the real world can be described mathematically was, to me, simply wonderful. Today I get the same enjoyment from mathematical descriptions of nature, which are just more complicated versions of the word problems I adored in my youth. A truly breathtaking range of such problems can be found in John A. Adam’s Mathematics in Nature, which tackles quite a broad assortment of nature’s patterns, going beyond the typical ones with which we might all be familiar. Most, however, are within nearly everyone’s realm of experience. For example, the book’s 24 color plates present fascinating cloud patterns, a double rainbow, sand dunes, ocean waves, plant and floral forms, patterns on animals and cracks in asphalt. Adam builds the reader’s mathematical intuition as he discusses these phenomena.”
More of Will Wilson’s review of Mathematics in Nature: Modeling Patterns in the Natural World by John A. Adam here, in American Scientist Online.