Pentagons and Pentagrams: An Illustrated History

This book features a captivating exploration of the pentagon’s diverse cultural significance. The pentagon and its pentagram have inspired mathematicians, philosophers, artists, and naturalists for over two and a half millennia.

Author Eli Maor narrates vivid stories about the pentagon and pentagram, from the early Pythagoreans who attributed mythical attributes to it and constructed it with a straightedge and compass, to a San Diego housewife who discovered four previously unknown pentagonal tilings and a scientist’s discovery of fivefold symmetries in alloys that sparked a Nobel Prize-winning controversy in crystallography. Maor also explores the pentagon’s impact on buildings, from medieval fortresses to the US Pentagon. Eugen Jost’s illustrations provide visual context, and the book’s puzzles and mazes offer fun challenges with solutions in an appendix.

(This book may contain a sharpie mark on the top or bottom edge and may show mild signs of shelfwear.)