Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else (Jordan Ellenberg)

Jordan Ellenberg’s Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else is a far-ranging exploration into geometry and its impacts on everything in our life. You might vaguely remember your isosceles triangles, proofs, and angles from math class, not thinking of the practical uses that shapes and geometry may have in your life. Oh, dear reader, geometry is everywhere.

Two topic areas that get extensive coverage in Shape are COVID-19 modeling and political redistricting. In the first, the various models that were used - often erroneously - in predicting death and positive case counts due to COVID-19 were based on geometry. Ellenberg discusses how the models were put together, why forecasting is hard, and what went wrong with the early predictions. The second topic, political redistricting, has become increasingly partisan as state political parties often game census data to create advantages. Ellenberg spends a large chunk of the latter stages of the book tackling political gerrymandering, noting that its origins are not exactly where the history books credit it, and also discusses some ideas of varying craziness in tackling the problem.

I generally enjoyed Shape but had to re-read some sections a couple of times to understand them. It’s clear the author, who is a math professor, is passionate about geometry. The relevant, modern examples of how shapes matter in and impact today’s world makes this book worth reading if you’re an educator or someone who has an interest in math’s application in life.

MY RATING - 4