Books — hermiene.net

"Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment."

Back to Books

Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe

Original title:
Bolland: een roman van gekromde ruimten en uitdijend heelal
Authors:
Dionys Burger (author) and Cornelie J. Rheinboldt (translator)
Language:
English
Original language:
Dutch
Categories:
Mathematics and science fiction
Publication year:
1968
Original publication year:
1965
Pages:
205
Synopsis:

Somewhat of a sequel to Flatland, Sphereland continues in the same vein, explaining three dimensions to two-dimensional creatures. The pace and mode of writing is pretty similar to the original, and I very much liked that. The novel things that Sphereland does is two-dimensional space exploration and explaining a curved line to a one-dimensional being (and thus setting up the explanation for why two-dimensional beings would have problems understanding a plane curved into a sphere, and by extension how three-dimensional beings would have trouble understanding how to curve a sphere around a hyper-sphere).

Has read?
Yes
Debut?
Yes
Images:
Back of Sphereland.Spine of Sphereland.Front of Sphereland.
Table of Contents:
[Toggle visibility]

A Look at FLATLAND A Fantasy About the Fourth Dimension by A. Square

  • 1 Flatland and Its Inhabitants
  • 2 Dream Vision of Lineland
  • 3 The Visit of the Sphere
  • 4 To the Land of Three Dimensions
  • 5 Dishonored

SPHERELAND A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and and Expanding Universe by A. Hexagon

  • PART I The Straight World
    • 1 Changed Times
    • 2 Easing of Class Consciousness
    • 3 Explorers' Trips
    • 4 The Trees, the Wildlife, and the Sea
    • 5 The Trip Around the World
    • 6 The Earth Is Round
    • 7 New Year's Eve
    • 8 The Sphere Reformed
  • PART II Congruence and Symmetry
    • 9 Pedigrees and Mongrels
    • 10 Little Red Riding Shoe
    • 11 A Magic Trick
    • 12 Vision of Lineland
    • 13 The Vertato Case
    • 14 Experiments in Spaceland
  • PART III Curved Worlds
    • 15 A Rumor
    • 16 The Visit
    • 17 Amazing Results
    • 18 An Impossible Problem
    • 19 Strange Triangles
    • 20 The Faculty
    • 21 Vision of Circleland
    • 22 Revelations by the Sphere
    • 23 Problems
    • 24 The Shortest Way
  • PART IV Expanding Worlds
    • 25 Distant Views
    • 26 Telemetry
    • 27 Increasing Distances
    • 28 Hunting for the Cause
    • 29 Expanding Circleland
    • 30 Expanding Sphereland
    • 31 Miracles in Spaceland
    • 32 Misunderstood
  • Index

Back to Books