The author's book presents concise, easily understood examples of shapes, algorithms, motions, and communication (the latter is a component of every exercise), including sounds captured by telephones and microphones. The author engagingly describes demonstrations using groups of people and descriptions of the ways in which constructions, interactions—such as the chain reaction of a sound made in a sequence through open windows—and, in diverse examples, observations of the ways in which different materials such as wood and metal held by couples or small groups affect their actions and results.

A section of particular interest examines group forms that define shapes and movement in patterns, as well as multidimensional relationships, illustrating how people within the shapes align, move, and maintain their specified positions. Exercises and practices in other chapters include a magnet attached to a ring on a finger to demonstrate magnetoreception: "the sense of the direction of the magnetic North Pole," as well as the magnet's attraction to other magnetic and ferromagnetic items.

The book is the fifth in a series of books with eye-catching titles. The work examines forms, functions, and related concepts in diverse, eclectic ways that liberate the reader from the standard forms of thesis, hypothesis, model, and proof. The functions that Elkins describes exist as he writes them, many without a summary or validation. The actions and experiments demonstrate relationships and actions without the need for justification. The book is well worth the time of anyone who enjoys physical and social sciences. In short, it is stimulating.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

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