A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Design Science Collection) [Paperback]

Amy C. Edmondson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0817633383 | ISBN-13: 978-0817633387 | Publication Date: January 1, 1986 | Edition: 1

Edmondson clarifies Buckminster Fuller's synergetic geometry in conventional language and mathematics and illuminates his effort to employ synergetics as a strategy for human survival. Updated author Preface and new Foreword by J. Baldwin. clarifies

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Birkhäuser Boston; 1 edition (January 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0817633383
• ISBN-13: 978-0817633387
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,653,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This clearly explains the secret geometry of the universe, December 29, 2001

By 

Karen Vandewalker (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Design Science Collection) (Paperback)

Cartesian geometry is not merely inconvenient, but wrong enough so that it's actively hindering our civilization. It's a blind alley, in the same way Roman numerals were.

Buckminster Fuller's most startling inventions are trivial exercises of the theory in this book.

Sorry to sound hysterical, but this is a really important book, and it's much too neglected. It should definitely NOT be out of print. It's right up there with Euclid. Fuller was a genius, but he couldn't write. Edmondson can.

Amy Edmondson worked closely with Buckminster Fuller before he died. She extracted, and explains in this book Fuller's least tractable, least appreciated concepts: His realization that the natural analytic geometry of the universe is tetrahedral. This is the stuff that people were forming study groups to try to extract from "Synergetics," and she just lays it out, in neat, logical prose with clear diagrams, and references to related scholarly literature...

Fuller (according to Edmondson) ran into tetrahedral geometry by no less than three different routes: close packing of spheres, three dimensional stabilization of an object by either compressive or tensile members. Then, as a trivial exercise, a result, there's a proof that the maximum strength homogenous truss is tetrahedral. Then, almost as an aside, it happens that all the regular solids (except the icosahedron) have volumes that are integral multiples of the volume of a tetrahedron!

Right about then, I began to think that everything I know about geometry is, not wrong eactly, but just not the right way. You know, like finding arabic numerals when you've been using roman numerals your whole life.

I was totally blown away, and I was expecting to be bored spitless.

If you're interested in Buckminster Fuller's work, GET THIS BOOK!
If you're a mathematician, GET THIS BOOK!!!
Really!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous translation of a great thinker's work, December 18, 2008

By 

Philip A. Earnhardt "FloatingBones.com" (The Colorado Front Range) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Design Science Collection) (Paperback)

Buckminster Fuller's "Synergetics" is a fabulous text, but grasping its words in their fullness is challenging. I have gone to the depths on some of the sections of that book: the rewards are great, but the cost is also tremendous.

Professor Amy Edmondson provides a translation for the ages in A Fuller Explanation. While honoring the work of Fuller, she presents the ideas in a way that can be understood by anyone.

To understand how things work, it's critical to understand the nature of physical structure. These concepts are rarely discussed unless you study physics or material science in detail. That's a darn shame, because understanding structure is critical to understanding how nature creates structure -- and how it's so different than manmade structure.

This book is back in print -- it's just not available at Amazon yet.
The ISBN of the new edition is 978-0-615-18314-5.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Kindle edition has problems, March 19, 2011

By 

Cameron Reilly (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Back-in-Action books) (Kindle Edition)

A brilliant book, but unfortunately the Kindle edition has problems. For example, the Greek letter pi, referenced often in the book, always shows up as a blank square. This makes it difficult to read. I'd expect this kind of textual error with an amateur OCR text, but not in a $10 version.