Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T06:15:10.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Science, art and geometrical imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2011

Jean-Pierre Luminet
Jean-Pierre Luminet*
Affiliation:
LUTh, CNRS UMR 8102, Observatoire de Paris, 5 Place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France email: jean-pierre.luminet@obspm.fr
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

From the geocentric, closed world model of Antiquity to the wraparound universe models of relativistic cosmology, the parallel history of space representations in science and art illustrates the fundamental rôle of geometric imagination in innovative findings. Through the analysis of works of various artists and scientists like Plato, Dürer, Kepler, Escher, Grisey or the author, it is shown how the process of creation in science and in the arts rests on aesthetical principles such as symmetry, regular polyhedra, laws of harmonic proportion, tessellations, group theory, etc., as well as on beauty, conciseness and an emotional approach of the world.

Keywords

artgeometryhistory
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S260: The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture , January 2009 , pp. 248 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Aristotle, , 2007, On the heavens, trans. Stocks, J. L. (Cambridge: MIT Classics archive)Google Scholar
Aristotle, , 2008, Physics, trans. Waterfield, R. (Oxford: Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Copernicus, N. 1992, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, trans. Rosen, E. (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press)Google Scholar
Dirac, P. A. M. 1963, Scientific American, 208, 45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einstein, A. 1954, in Ideas and opinions (New York: Wing Books)Google Scholar
Ernst, B. & Locher, J. L. 1971, The World of M.C. Escher (New York: H.N. Abrams)Google Scholar
Galilei, G. 1960, The Assayer, trans. Drake, S. & Mailey, C. D. (Philadelphia: University of Pensylvania Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, B. 2003, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (New York: W. W. Norton & Co.)Google Scholar
Kepler, J. 1966, The Six-Cornered Snowflake, trans. Hardie, C. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)Google Scholar
Kepler, J. 1981, The Secret of the Cosmos, trans. Duncan, A. M. & ed. Alton, E. J. (New York: Abaris Books)Google Scholar
Kepler, J. 1997, The Harmony of the World, trans. & notes by Aiton, E. J., Field, J. V. & Duncan, A. M. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society)Google Scholar
Kepler, J. 2004, Astronomia nova (selection), Donahue, W.H. (ed) (Santa Fe: Green Lion Press)Google Scholar
Klibansky, R., Panofsky, E., & Saxl, F. 1964, Saturn and Melancholy (New York: Basic Books)Google Scholar
Lachièze-Rey, M. & Luminet, J. P. 1995, Physics Reports, 254, 135CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lachièze-Rey, M. & Luminet, J. P. 2001, Celestial Treasury (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Lehoucq, R., Lachièze-Rey, , & Luminet, J. P. 1996, Astron. Astrophys., 313, 339Google Scholar
Livio, M. 2003, The Golden Ratio (New York: Broadway Books)Google Scholar
Luminet, J. P. 2001, L'univers chiffonné (Paris: Fayard) English translation by E. Novak, The Wraparound Universe (Wellesley: A. K. Peters)Google Scholar
Luminet, J. P. et al. 2003, Nature, 425, 593CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luminet, J. P. 2006, Le Secret de Copernic (Paris: J. C. Lattès)Google Scholar
Luminet, J. P. 2008, La discorde céleste: Kepler et le trésor de Tycho Brahé (Paris: J. C. Lattès)Google Scholar
Luminet, J. P. 2009, L'œil de Galilée (Paris: J. C. Lattès)Google Scholar
Plato, , 2008, Timaeus, trans. Zeyl, D., Book JungleGoogle Scholar
Penrose, R. 1974, Bull. Inst. Maths. Appl., 10, 266Google Scholar
Penrose, R. 1994, Shadows of the Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Salat, S. 2002, Les labyrinthes de l'éternité (Paris: Hermann)Google Scholar
Thoren, V. 1990, The Lord of Uraniborg Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Vitruvius, , 1970, On Architecture, trans. Granger, G., Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)Google Scholar