Geodesic Math and How to Use It

To paraphrase Barbara Mandrell, geodesic domes were green when green wasn't cool. I read this book in college and was sorely tempted to steal it out of the university library because it had gone out of print and was just not available new or used anywhere else. I kicked myself later for not yielding to temptation when I went to check it out again and realized that someone else stole it before me! Seriously, give Kenner his rightful due, this is a classic in its field. What is my test for saying so? It has been thirty years since the book's first printing and has yet to see its equal. And there have been many many contenders. I could not recommend any one book higher for hobbyist or even professional reference to geodesic calculation and the practical design of geodesic domes. Though Hugh is no longer with us, five years gone as I am writing this, but the effects of his powerful intellect live on and continue to infect others with his inquisitive spirit by way of such seminal work.

Seemed over-technical at 1st, but after about a year has been my reference book on geodesics & making all kinds of geodesic domes... It lists chord factors (lengths of segments before applying radius of dome) on tables to 7 decimals for various domes @ the end of the book if you don't want do calculate w/formulas provided. If your familiar with trigonometry, it will let you jump around chapters that are of more interest. This book was originally copyrighted in 1976, but not edited for this 2nd paperback 2003 Edition (glossy color cover). The author, Hugh Kenner (1923-2003), has compiled a very thorough book. Very well written & explained in orderly fashion with excellent general layout & (especially for the time) detailed diagrams plus cross page-references. IMO there is very little that I would change except for replacing current diagrams with modern CAD generated illustrations, that's about it. Has 172 pages with several blank pages for notes (I note in the wide margins instead) & is 8.7 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches. Not a small book but not a big bulky one either. Makes for a lot of information handy to store just about anywhere... ____________________________________________________________________________________ I found many formulas & shortcuts throughout the book. From Chapter 12 I plotted a 16 frequency (# of divisions making total # of triangles) icosahedron (the typical geodesic polyhedron shape) dome with 3880 chords or "struts". Even made them into arcs for a perfectly round sphere. Chapter 12 has "Using the Tables" with a simple symmetric triangle xyz-grid on a spreadsheet. Each chord calculated does not rely on another chord's result, so chance of error is greatly reduced. Chapter 14 "Truncations" has "Truncation by Rotation", which saves time on calculating the rest of the chords in dome, or moving chords by their symmetry. This "still nicely" bound book after a lot of use covers tension & tensegrities, subdivisions, great circles, symmetry & breakdowns, choosing a polyhedron, spherical coordinate system, ellipses & superellipses, truncations, space frames & many kinds of angles - plus charts & other resources @ the end. A free program on the web called Windome is useful to 8 decimals, but lacks input parameters like radius... So I use it to verify chord factors. From 2-16v involving about 12,240 chords plotting all verified (to 15 digits) on 1st try. Besides spreadsheets, formulas can be used in programming like "The R Project", formulas & programs are also written for old Hewlett-Packard HP-35, 21 & 45 series calculators & programs filed with the HP-65 library (circa mid-1970's). I guess it also goes to show Hewlett-Packard has a history in the PC & hardware programming business... One thing - spherical coordinate symbols for Theta & Phi are switched, though referenced in correct order (check Mathworld). Easy to correct, just read "Phi symbol" as Theta & "Theta symbol" as Phi - references & formulas

The subject very well presented and in a way that is easy to understand. Gives the underlying math to be able to use our modern computers setting on our desk tops to go far beyond what one person could do 25 years ago.

Well, the time has come for the pirates to take a hike. UC Press is reprinting this book. The information I have indicates both hard and softcover bindings...It will be available this year (2003).Geodesic Math and How To Use It is an extremely well written book, and with the NASA papers, forms the "canon of applied geodesic math." It is a great book, well written and useful.

Hugh Kenner's book is the bible of geodesy. While other books provide you with tables and some of the rudiments of the theory of geodesic domes, 'Geodesic Math and How to Use it' gives you a first-principle look at how domes are developed from a mathematical/geometrical point of view. Most importantly, Kenner introduces the reader to a novel metric for both describing the location of geodesic points in space and calculating their exact positions, so you can develop your own chord factors rather than relying on tables without understanding the underlying math.