Automotive Holiday Deals BOTYKT Shop Women's Dresses Learn more nav_sap_SWP_6M_fly_beacon Indie for the Holidays egg_2015 All-New Amazon Fire TV Subscribe & Save Gifts Under $100 Street Art Project Amazon Gift Card Offer aos aos aos Amazon Echo Starting at $49.99 Kindle Voyage AntMan Outdoor Deals on Amazon.com BGG

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Qty:1
  • List Price: $55.00
  • Save: $15.53 (28%)
FREE Shipping.
Only 7 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Mathematical Excursions t... has been added to your Cart
Want it Thursday, Dec. 10? Order within and choose Two-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
Used: Good | Details
Sold by glenthebookseller
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc... All Day Low Prices!

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Sell yours for a Gift Card
We'll buy it for $17.93
Learn More
Trade in now
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

Mathematical Excursions to the World's Great Buildings Hardcover – July 22, 2012

by Alexander J. Hahn (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews
See all 2 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$37.50
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
$39.47
$38.91 $29.50
Get it before Christmas. Select delivery options in checkout.
$39.47 FREE Shipping. Only 7 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • Mathematical Excursions to the World's Great Buildings
  • +
  • A History of Western Architecture, 5th edition
Total price: $79.47
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. A History of Western Architecture, 5th edition
    David Watkin
    3.9 out of 5 stars 8
    Paperback
    $40.00 Prime
  2. Architectural Graphics
    Francis D. K. Ching
    4.6 out of 5 stars 41
    Paperback
  3. Vitruvius: 'Ten Books on Architecture'
    Vitruvius
    4.2 out of 5 stars 9
    Paperback
    $37.81 Prime
  4. Architecture and Design in Europe and America: 1750 - 2000
    Dr. Abigail…
    3.0 out of 5 stars 1
    Paperback
    $63.95 Prime
  5. Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order
    Alexander Tzonis
    4.7 out of 5 stars 3
    Paperback
    $26.12 Prime
  6. Calculus: Ideas and Applications
    Alex Himonas
    3.7 out of 5 stars 7
    Hardcover
    $165.81 Prime
Next

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)
1.  Estonian Manors&Castles opens new browser window
  -  
Discover over one thousand manors from the 13th century onwards!
www.visitestonia.com/
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Hero Quick Promo
Up to 85% Off Over 1,000 Kindle Books
Visit our Holiday Deals store and save up to 85% on more than 1,000 Kindle books. These deals are valid until December 31, 2015. Learn more

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press; First Edition edition (July 22, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0691145202
  • ISBN-13: 978-0691145204
  • Product Dimensions: 1 x 9.2 x 10.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
The Mathematics of Architecture
By Rob Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER on September 6, 2012
Format: Hardcover
In his autobiography, Bertrand Russell wrote of his passion for mathematics, "I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway about the flux." The Pythagoreans held all things to be numbers, and it wouldn't be surprising if Alexander J. Hahn, a professor of mathematics, held them in the same reverence. If all things are numbers, so all buildings are numbers, and Hahn's _Mathematical Excursions into the World's Great Buildings_ (Princeton University Press) is an attempt to show mathematical and architectural principles together through history. Both subjects are vast, but Hahn hits highlights of both as he ties the two together. This is a good-looking volume, large format, with plenty of illustrations consisting of old and new pictures of famous buildings and force diagrams and curves in the Cartesian plane. It also could be a text for a course in mathematics; every chapter ends in a list of "Problems and Discussions," exercises to be solved by the student, with answers not given. Since these range from the Pythagorean theorem to full scale calculus, they may be more than the general reader (such as this one) might want to attempt. Some of the math within the text is daunting, too, but Hahn's explanations are clear and his enthusiasm is obvious.

There are themes that run through the chapters here to make the book a consistent whole. One is the idea of the arch. You will here find analysis of the forces on the "voussoirs" (stones making the arch, with the keystone the top one), the friction between them, and the outward thrust. The Romans did little calculation for making their half-circle arches, but of course used the mathematics of geometry.Read more ›
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Great book
By Ann Marie Wagrez on November 24, 2012
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
It was exactly what I was looking for. There is a comparison on mathematical concepts between the Greeks and Romans that I enjoyed to read.
From begining to end, it is a real pleasure to go through the different concepts and periods in architecture.
I will consider to buy a print version of this book.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Professor for Physics
By Ikaros Bigi on April 28, 2013
Format: Hardcover
My review of Hahn's book `The Mathematical Excursions to the Word's Great Buildings':
It is a wonderful book! You can see my `real' judgment that I paid for this book quickly with my own money, not to find it on our library or pay from my research funds. I keep it in my office to read parts from it after teaching classes and before working on my research. I work on physics, but as a theorist I know something about math.
Around the century ago physics had focused more and more not for finding elementary particles, but on the underlying `symmetries'. I have to give the credit to the mathematics to think about it - and in real world how to produce wonderful buildings and crucially to help the architecture & architects. Professor Hahn shows in excellent ways to show the crucial collaboration between the people from mathematics & architecture and the tools with building those designs; it follows the traditions what these people see a goal of their works.
Finally I think it is wonderful to see `geometry' and `algebra' and the connections between different ways from churches, mosques and even opera house and the correlations with Greek, Roman and Arabic/Islam buildings and their patterns. Many people talk `only' about Greek & Roman architecture and others `only' about Arabic & Islam architecture. In this book you can see the history of connections between different cultures based on mathematics.

I have to disagree with the author only on two points:
(a) I believe that Gauss was a genius not `only' in mathematics, but in general -- in particular also in physics.
(b) `La Sagrada Familia' in Barcelona is wonderful, but I will give `Palau Guell' `top' position for Gaudi's work. In some January ago I was able to walk around also on the `landscape' of the roof.

Ikaros Islam Bigi, Grace-Rupley II Professor, Notre Dame du Lac
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Pleasure, knowledge, pleasure
By Miguel Angel Vazquez on April 24, 2013
Format: Hardcover
In Spain, years ago, when you were 14 years old you have to choose between studying Humanities or Science. For those who chose the first, maths began to fade out swiftly in their student curricula. I am one of those "Humanities guys".

I'd always wanted to recover my old student relationship with maths, so I got excited when I was told that there was a path to do it using something widely known by a Humanities "expert": art and architecture. I bought Hahn's book with big hopes. The book was even better than expected.

There's a world inside the world of art. One has always known of its existence, but never had been able to touch it, see it, understand it. Loving art and architecture (the Humanities approach) is basically a question of pleasure. You just feel strong emotions facing a cathedral's façade, and you do not exactly know why. From know on, thanks to this book, I've seen a new dimension: not only loving, but, sorry for the Ucases, UNDERSTANDING it. Knowing how it was made.

Maybe some readers would consider the book too tough. Maybe it is, specially for someone who do not work with maths. But exactly in the same degree in which a math expert can enjoy an obscure Apollinaire's poem or James Joyce page, a Humanities lover would find, this is my opinion, pleaure in re-reading passages and getting, in the end, to the sweet shelter of knowledge.

I truly admire this book's author and, also, the bunch of giants who live in its pages: the builders, the freemasons, the architects, the engineers. Specially those between them who, actually, lacked of protocolised knowledge and learned how to build beauty, as Henri de Violet le Duc remembers us in his own book about Middle Age construction methods, just trying, then failing, then trying again.Read more ›
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

A mathematician's guide to great architecture

I have used this book as the textbook for a study-abroad class I teach in Rome (Mathematical Beauty in Rome, a UCSD Global Seminar) on the architectural geometry and structural... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Joe Pasquale
Interesting excursions!

Any book trying to bridge mathematics and architecture in a historical perspective is most welcome, and Alexander Hahn has certainly collected some very interesting examples and... Read more

Published 22 months ago by BJØRN FELSAGER
What is math used for? This book is one good answer to that question

Of all the great works of art, the magnificent buildings are the ones that take the most air out of your lungs. Read more

Published on November 2, 2013 by Charles Ashbacher
Mathematical Excursions to the World's Great Buildings

I am a business manager/consultant that works with the architectural design, construction, space management and artistic trades. Read more

Published on April 29, 2013 by E D BUCK
Dry and Boring-nothing new

I bought this as a gift for my husband; a math teacher and travel enthusiast. We have been to a number of places in the book and so I thought he would enjoy it from a fresh... Read more

Published on April 15, 2013 by Crazy88Line Cook
A textbook on a fascinating topic

Wonderful description of the evolution of engineering for large domes (along with new structural materials. Read more

Published on March 18, 2013 by Don Roberto
whew, didn't realize i nedded a masters degree in math

a friend, who is also an architect, told me of this book and said it was fascinating. got the book and am also fascinated by the whole concept. Read more

Published on February 13, 2013 by James S. Hentschell
"BREATHTAKING, FASCINATING, INTRIGUING!"

Alexander Hahn, Professor of mathematics at the University of Notre Dame, delivers a brilliant and fascinating portrait as he connects math to real world applications. Read more

Published on August 5, 2012 by Author/Reviewer Geri Ahearn

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
Mathematical Excursions to the World's Great Buildings
This item: Mathematical Excursions to the World's Great Buildings
Price: $39.47
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Want to discover more products? Check out this page to see more: j stewart single variable calculus