The Perfect Shape

This book uses the spiral shape as a key to a multitude of strange and seemingly disparate stories about art, nature, science, mathematics, and the human endeavour. In a way, the book is itself organized as a spiral, with almost disconnected chapters circling around and closing in on the common theme. A particular strength of the book is its extremely cross-disciplinary nature - everything is fun, and everything is connected! At the same time, the author puts great emphasis on mathematical and scientific correctness, in contrast, perhaps, with some earlier books on spirals. Subjects include the mathematical properties of spirals, sea shells, sun flowers, Greek architecture, air ships, the history of mathematics, spiral galaxies, the anatomy of the human hand, the art of prehistoric Europe, Alfred Hitchcock, and spider webs, to name a few.

Spirals of the abyss. - Squaring the circle. - The icon. - The King of Snails. - Spira Mirabilis. - Circular tesselations. - How to brace a circle. - Sunflowers. - The great spiral in the sky. - The spiral of the ancient mariner. - Gnomons, a miracle, and Charles Babbage. - The uncoiling finger. - An interlude at the beach. - Spiral Jetty, Tatlin's Tower. - The Friend. - The labyrinths of history. - Sculptures of the sea Maelstrom. - Nature red in blood and claw. - Pagan coils. - The case of the staircase. - Helix. - The quest for the sublime spiral. - Spirals of the mind. - The spider's spiral spin. - Helical trees. - Literature.