Book Description
The definitive work on an area of Chinese design long recognized as an important folk art. 1,239 designs are shown, with titles, commentaries, and other information: 265 groups of design based on parallelogram, octagon, hexagon, single focus frames, wedge-lock, parallel waves, swastikas, U-scroll, more.
Customer Reviews:
A classic.......2007-04-05
I have been delving into this book for the past twenty years and now have my own copy. The book is truly inspiring, a wonder of flat pattern design. You will never ever find anything to compare with the wealth and variety of designs found here. This is it, the bible of Chinese lattice design.
A Reference Book That Makes A Great Gift.......2004-12-26
This remarkable book began as a momentary hobby when the author was sightseeing in 1916. He spent the next two decades or so collecting over 1,000 designs in China (primarily near Chengtu) that span three millennia. In this book, he classifies them into 26 general types, arbitrarily assigning a letter of the alphabet to each.
The book is a great gift for anyone interested in design, ranging from blacksmiths to architects. It is also an excellent reference and makes for interesting leisure "reading" when one is in the mood for visual patterns rather than verbal concepts.
Book Description
Classic work, both in West and in China, on the intricate geometric window grids is a rich source of patterns and ideas for wallpaper, stained glass, fabric work, embroidery, more. 372 lattice designs never before published, expand Dye's earlier classic work. Frames, borders, octagons, swastikas, intricate patterns. Introduction.
Customer Reviews:
The New Book of Chinese Lattice Designs.......2005-07-06
The second best book on Chinese Lattice Designs, the first also by Daniel Sheets Dye (Chinese Lattice Designs). This is a very worthwhile addition to the first book and contains a wonderful selection of illustrations. It is not a repeat of the first book, and the larger format provides for larger illustrations. If you are into flat pattern design this just brilliant.
Average customer rating:
|
Traditional Chinese Lattice Designs (Dover Design Library)
Muncie Hendler
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Asian
| Regional
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Clip Art
| Graphic Design
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Decorative Arts
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Embroidery
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0486286991 |
Average customer rating:
|
Grammar of Chinese Lattice
Daniels Sheet Dye
Manufacturer: SMC Publishing Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 9579482403 |
Download Description
"""It is the aim of this book to...present the evolution of number as the profoundly human story which it is.""
¿Tobias Dantzig
""This is beyond doubt the most interesting book on the evolution of mathematics which has ever fallen into my hands. If people know how to treasure the truly good, this book will attain a lasting place in the literature of the world. The evolution of mathematical thought from the earliest times to the latest constructions is presented here with admirable consistency and originality and in a wonderfully lively style.""
¿Albert Einstein
""Tobias Dantzig's Number: The Language of Science is one of the truly great classics of mathematical exposition, perhaps the most lucid history of the number concept ever written. Its republication should be a cause for celebration by every scientifically minded person, regardless of his or her mathematical background.""
¿Eli Maor, author of e: The Story of a Number and To Infinity and Beyond
""Tobias Dantzig's Number is a classic. A fascinating account of the evolution of mathematics, it deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone who is interested in the history of thought.""
¿Charles Seife, author of Zero and Alpha and Omega
""A classic! Anyone interested in the history of numbers and mathematics should read this book.""
¿Mario Livio, author of The Golden Ratio
From the rudimentary mathematical abilities of prehistoric man to the counterintuitive and bizarre ideas at the edges of modern math, this masterpiece of science writing tells the story of mathematics through the history of its most central concept: number.
Dantzig succeeds in his aim to reveal a human story, and in making that story accessible to the non-expert. In his friendly and welcoming style, he shows how math developed from basic faculties present in us all, beginning with our ""number sense""¿the ability to discern that an object has been added to or removed from a small collection of objects without counting. The subsequent evolution of the concept of number is inextricably linked with the history of human culture, as Dantzig demonstrates. He shows how advances in math were spurred by the demands of growing commerce in the ancient world; how the pure speculation of philosophers and religious mystics contributed to our understanding of numbers; how the exchange of ideas between cultures in times of war and imperial conquest fueled advances in knowledge; and, ultimately, how the forces of history combine with human intuition to trigger revolutions in thought.
Sweeping in scope, Number is an open doorway into the world of math. Dantzig explains the foundations of mathematics with ease, and eloquently explores deeper philosophical questions that arise along the way. He describes the properties of all kinds of numbers¿integers, primes, irrationals, transcendentals, and more. He explains the significance of zero, and shows that its invention had revolutionary consequences for arithmetic. He shows how the invention of symbols for use in algebra¿a radical departure from tradition at the time¿ushered in a new era of math; how arithmetic and geometry reflect each other; and how calculus uses infinity to model the continuity of space and time.
With a new afterword, notes section, and bibliography written by math professor and author Joseph Mazur, and a new foreword by mathematician Barry Mazur, the Masterpiece Science edition of Number¿which was first published in 1930¿is the first update of Dantzig's classic work in over fifty years. It is a story that ranges from the dawn of man to the genius of history's greatest mathematicians, vividly revealing how the pursuit of knowledge transcends the rise and fall of civilizations."
Customer Reviews:
Interesting theory overview of maths, algebra, and arithmetic.......2007-07-03
Sometimes a bit tough, but in general very interesting to read the theory behind the various kinds of numbers. Including what we nromally would not see as a number..
The best book about the history of numbers and the philosophical ramifications of new discoveries that I have seen.......2007-05-14
The historical development of the different types of numbers mirrors the development of civilization. It all starts with the fingers and toes, which allowed for simple counting and the fact that we use base ten is due to the fact that humans have ten of each. The first chapter, "Fingerprints", demonstrates this. Chapter two describes what was an enormous achievement in improving the efficiency of arithmetic, the development of positional notation and the zero. It is hard for the modern person to look back and appreciate how revolutionary a development this was. Like most other inventions, it was necessity that drove the creation. As economies began to expand when Europe emerged from the Dark Ages, the numbers being used on a daily basis grew more frequent and larger. Roman Numerals were inadequate and inefficient, and it is hard to see how commerce and finance could have expanded as much as they did had positional notation not become the norm.
One of the most interesting and illuminating facts in on page 26. A university student is told that the German Universities were inadequate in providing instruction in multiplication and division, that to truly learn how to perform them, one must attend an Italian University. It is a demonstration of how far we have come in our educational system that what is now done in public grade schools was once considered advanced university education, not available everywhere.
Simple, universal notations also played a significant role in the development of mathematics, which is the topic of chapter five. Without the symbols to concisely express the operations of mathematics, it is difficult to see how mathematics could have advanced as fast or as far as it has. The development of the remaining numbers, such as fractions and irrational numbers are explained in great detail and in the appropriate historical context. The last chapter, "The Two Realities", is a philosophical examination regarding the extent to which numbers correspond to reality. Numbers are examined relative to subjective and objective realities. Counting processes are considered to be objective realities, because there is no subjective interpretation to be applied. Everyone can agree on the number of objects in a set, and Dantzig expounds in great length about how we should consider numbers to be "real." It is an interesting demonstration of thinking about how the various sets of numbers are considered and manipulated.
This is the best book about the historical development of numbers and the philosophical ramifications of new discoveries that I have seen. We humans use all kinds of numbers with an ease that would astonish learned men of only a few centuries ago. Dantzig writes so well in his descriptions of numbers that one really doesn't even need a background in algebra to understand this book.
Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.
So deserves its "classic" status.......2006-12-15
NLS is, in a word, masterful. It is a fascinating and penetrating introduction to the "language of science". After laying a foundation of first principles (what is a number, what does it mean to count), Dantzig goes on to construct a veritable cathedral of mathematics. As the reader climbs ever higher, the mathematics Dantzig describes grows increasingly abstruse, but the exposition remains lucid and compelling throughout. Dantzig is a terrific guide -- an exceedingly good writer and a very deep thinker. Many of the concepts developed in NLS are treated ad nauseum in the popular mathematics literature, but nowhere as clearly. After reading the opening pages of NLS, I was impressed with the writing (very literary in style) but was skeptical that I would learn much from this slim volume. How very wrong I was. Time and again Dantzig clarified concepts and connections that have long eluded my full grasp. NLS is a superb book, and a fascinating read. This new edition is a useful improvement on its predecessors -- with excellent endnotes and bibliography, and a well-considered division of the book into text and appendices.
A Human Story.......2006-04-02
The striking facts about Danzig's book are :
1. It does not claim to be a 'popular' science book. At the outset, he warns the reader ".. it is not written for those who are afflicted with an incurable horror of the symbol". In doing so, I think he has gained more readership, simply because noone likes to be patronised, and most 'popular' science books are extremely patronising.
2. He makes it a point to explain to the reader that mathematics is not something that was made by the Hand of God. He clearly explains the mistakes made by some of the most eminent mathematicians, and thus brings out the 'human' element in the evolution of mathematics very beautifully.
3. He interweaves his philosophy with that of the history of math, and thus makes it eminently readable.
Postmodern mathematics?.......2005-07-11
Einstein called this "the most interesting book on the evolution of mathematics which has ever fallen into my hands."
Number was first published in 1930 with the fourth edition coming out in 1954. This is a republication of that fourth edition (Dantzig died in 1956) edited by Joseph Mazur with a foreword by Barry Mazur. It is an eminently readable book like something from the pages of that fascinating four-volume work The World of Mathematics (1956) edited by James R. Newman in that it is aimed at mathematicians and the educated lay public alike.
Part history, part mathematics and part philosophy, Number is the story of how we humans got from "one, two...many" to various levels of infinity. Strange to say it is also about reality. Here is Dantzig's concluding statement from page 341 in Appendix D: "...modern science differs from its classical predecessor: it has recognized the anthropomorphic origin and nature of human knowledge. Be it determinism or rationality, empiricism or the mathematical method, it has recognized that man is the measure of all things, and that there is no other measure."
Or more pointedly from a couple of pages earlier: "Man's confident belief in the absolute validity of the two methods [mathematics and experiment] has been found to be of an anthropomorphic origin; both have been found to rest on articles of faith."
These are inescapably the statements of a postmodernist. I was surprised to read them in a book on the theory of numbers, and even more surprised to realize that if mathematics is a distinctly human language, it is entirely possible that beings from distant worlds may speak an entirely different language; and therefore our attempts to use what many consider the "universal" language of mathematics to communicate with them may be in vain.
And this thought makes me wonder. Is the concept "two," for example, (as opposed to the number "2") really just a human construction? Would not intelligent life anywhere be able to make a distinction, just as we have, between, say, two things and three things? And if so, would they not be able to count? And would not then the entire edifice of mathematics (or at least most of it) follow?
I wonder if Dantzig was not in contradiction with himself on this point because earlier he writes (p. 252) "...any measuring device, however simple and natural it may appear to us, implies the whole apparatus of the arithmetic of real numbers: behind any scientific instrument there is the master-instrument, arithmetic, without which the special device can neither be used nor even conceived." Does this not imply that measurements (by any beings) and therefore numbers have an existence outside of the human mind and do not rest on "articles of faith"?
As to the numbers themselves (putting philosophy aside) we learn that the two biggest bugaboos in the history of number are zero and infinity. It took a long, long time for humans, as Dantzig relates, to accept the idea of zero as a number. Today zero is also a place-holder. But what does it mean to say that there are zero pink elephants dancing about my living room? I can see one cow in the yard, or two or three, but I cannot see zero cows in the yard.
Of course, today it is easy to see that zero is a number that is less than one and greater than minus one. I have one cow and I sell that one cow. Now I have zero cows. (Curiously, note that the plural noun "cows" is grammatically required.) However, the imperfect fit within the entire structure of mathematics that zero has achieved may be appreciated by realizing that every other number can be a denominator; that is, three over one equals three, three over two equals 1.5, etc., but what does three over zero equal?
It is a convention of mathematics to say that division by zero is "undefined." There is no other number about which the same can be said.
I used to think when I was young that infinity was the proper answer to division by zero. For Dantzig this is clearly not correct because to him infinity is not a number at all but a part of the process. He writes, "the concept of infinity has been woven into the very fabric of our generalized number concept." He adds, "The domain of natural numbers rested on the assumption that the operation of adding one can be repeated indefinitely, and it was expressly stipulated that never shall the ultra-ultimate step of this process be itself regarded as a number." Of course he is talking about "natural" numbers. He notes in the next sentence that in the generalization to "real" numbers, "the limits of these processes" were "admitted...as bona fide numbers." (p. 245) In other words, part of the process became a number itself!
The culmination of Dantzig's argument here is that infinity itself is a construction of the human mind and exists nowhere (that we can prove) outside of the human mind. He believes that the basis for our belief in the existence of infinity comes from our (erroneous) conception of time as a continuum. Dantzig notes that Planck time and indeed all aspects of the world are to be seen in terms of discrete quanta and not continuous streams.
Ultimately, Dantzig gives this sweeping advice to the scientist: "...he will be wise to wonder what role his mind has played in...[a] discovery, and whether the beautiful image he sees in the pool of eternity reveals the nature of this eternity, or is but a reflection of his own mind." (p. 242)
Book Description
Paint a beautiful picture . . . the first time you try! What is the fascination with paint by number? Is it the compulsive, intoxicating act of filling in small pools of color? The thrill of creating your own works of art? Perhaps it is that without any lessons or experience, you can paint a masterpiece, just by following the numbers. From ballerinas and the Eiffel Tower, to tug boats and poppies, you'll have your choice of eight different vintage paint by numbers.
Includes:
- 8 paint-by-numbers postcards
- 8 stick-back easels
- 12 different acrylic paints
- Paintbrush
- 48-page booklet
Customer Reviews:
PBN lovin.......2007-08-21
I rather enjoyed this kit. I liked that I had so many projects and they didn't take too long to do. My only concern is that some of the colors did not mix up like they were supposed to so the finished product was shaded differently.
Paint by number sadness.......2007-08-21
Much to my chagrin, I had to return this item as I could not possibly see the numbers to know what colors to use. I was devasted.
Good but small.......2007-07-01
I didn't have a problem with the printing I thought that was fine but the paintings are only about 4"x6" while I was expecting about 12"x20".
printing on canvas boards pale.......2005-12-06
This would be a great paint by number kit if one could see the outlines of the picture on each board. It is so light you can hardly see the picture and the numbers for painting the masterpieces are completely unreadable. If anyone else has run across this please let Amazon know so they can fix this problem as I love paint by number kits.
I have run across this same problem with the Workman paint by number calendars also and quit buying them.
I will have to send this kit back as it is unusable.
Book Description
This unique paint-by-number guide teaches you how to recreate beautiful masterpieces by artists from Botticelli to Whistler. This innovative course guides you from a template to the finished piece, providing techniques and tips along the way. Perfect for both beginners and experienced painters.
Customer Reviews:
Not what I expected/wanted.......2007-06-29
I don't know about others, but the "paint-by-numbers" that I grew up with involves an actual canvas & paint. Neither of those elements are in this book. The book...which is what it is, not a kit of any sort...is simply a book about painting. It includes the diagrams that you can copy onto a canvas, but that's it. It was not what I wanted when I ordered something involving paint-by-numbers & I promply sent it back.
great do-it-yourself art.......2006-07-09
It has always been my dream to paint a painting that people could actually look at with pleasure. I found this book, and now my walls are filling up with wonderful paintings I did myself! Not only are the instructions easy to follow, but the techniques can be applied to copy paintings other than the ones in the book. I just finished my own copy of THE STARRY NIGHT using these techniques, and it looks great! I recommend this book to anyone who always wanted to paint but never thought she could.
Not your mother's paint-by-number.......2004-04-13
I just got this book and I can't wait to get my brushes dipping into paint. There are 30 masterpiece paintings in this book. From Botticelli to Whistler, with Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Klimt, Modigliani, etc. in between. All with directions, step by step photos, supply and palette lists, glossery and basic information on techniques. It is written for the Acrylic painter with some gouache, watercolor and pastel information for converting. It is not your old fashioned paint-by-number. These paintings have much more blending so that they look like the originals. What a hoot to paint your own version of the masterpieces.
Book Description
The nostalgic appeal of vintage paint-by-numbers art makes this fun kit simply irresistible. It includes everything needed to create two mini masterpiece versions of da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Munch's The Scream. Two pre-printed canvases, six paints and paintbrush, 32-page guidebook, plus full-color, double-sided instruction sheet and color key.
Book Description
This book traces the historical development of four different mathematical concepts by presenting readers with the original sources. Although primary sources can be more demanding, the investment yields the rewards of a deeper understanding of the subject, an appreciation of the details, and a glimpse into the direction research has taken.
Each chapter contains a different story, each anchored around a sequence of selected primary sources showcasing a masterpiece of mathematical achievement. The authors begin by studying the interplay between the discrete and continuous, with a focus on sums of powers. They proceed to the development of algorithms for finding numerical solutions of equations as developed by Newton, Simpson and Smale. Next they explore our modern understanding of curvature, with its roots in the emerging calculus of the 17th century, while the final chapter ends with an exploration of the elusive properties of prime numbers, and the patterns found therein.
This book emerged from a course taught at New Mexico State University to juniors and seniors majoring in mathematics. The intended audience is juniors and seniors majoring in mathematics, as well as anyone pursuing independent study. The authors have included exercises, numerous historical photographs, and an annotated bibliography.
Product Description
From the Cross Stitch Masterpiece Collection (American School of Needlework) JAPANESE ANGEL by Barbara Baatz #3724
Product Description
Marvel Masterpieces 2, number 3, a collection of marvel characters in portraits by the best...
Books:
- Churches of Minnesota: An Illustrated Guide
- Cisneros: Portrait of a New American
- Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy: Lab Dissection Guide
- Crystals, Fabrics, and Fields: Metaphors that Shape Embryos
- Design and Analysis of Ecological Experiments
- Dog Language: An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior
- Dream Homes of Texas (Dream Homes)
- Electrokinetics in Microfluidics, Volume 2 (Interface Science and Technology)
- Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians, Second Edition (Ap Natural World)
- European Church Architecture, 1950-2000 (Architecture)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd
- Paula Pryke's Flower School: Mastering the Art of Floral Design
- `Fingerprints' of Climate Change - Adapted Behaviour and Shifting Species Ranges
- In Jefferson's Shadow: The Architecture of Thomas R. Blackburn
- History: Fiction or Science
- Organizing Business Knowledge: The MIT Process Handbook
- Savoury Mushroom
- Radford's House Designs of the Twenties
- Featherweights: Light, Mobile and Floating Architecture
- Foraging New England: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods and Medicinal Plants fro
The New Book of Chinese Lattice Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Traditional Chinese Designs (Dover Design Library)
Chinese Folk Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Treasury of Chinese Design Motifs (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Traditional Chinese Textile Designs in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
