Perfectly smart adults feel intimidated by numbers and aren’t ashamed to say, “I hate math.” The new book “Math Art” could help change that by making the dreaded topic relevant and accessible to naturalists, artsy types, the philosophically inclined, and committed calculators alike. It illuminates an old lesson your math teachers probably tried to convey when you were a kid: Math dominates our lives even while we try with all our might to ignore it. In Math Art, released in April, science writer ...

Perfectly smart adults feel intimidated by numbers and aren’t ashamed to say, “I hate math.” The new book “Math Art” could help change that by making the dreaded topic relevant and accessible to naturalists, artsy types, the philosophically inclined, and committed calculators alike. It illuminates an old lesson your math teachers probably tried to convey when you were a kid: Math dominates our lives even while we try with all our might to ignore it.

In Math Art, released in April, science writer Ornes examines creative works inspired by math. It’s an aesthetically pleasing book with a delightfully tactile cover and satisfyingly thick and glossy pages that make it as fun to flip through as a fashion magazine. Chapters are dedicated to different concepts like pi, the golden ratio, equations in nature, and hyperbolic geometry. All of which may sound scary to the uninitiated but gain appeal when illustrated through sculpture, crochet, and painting. As Ornes explains in the introduction, math art isn’t new. Since ancient times, humans have visualized math in creative works. He argues that what is new is the mutual recognition that mathematicians and artists now show each other, increasingly gathering together at events dedicated to the intersection of aesthetics and numbers. “This is art by way of math and math by way of art, beauty at the crossroads,” Ornes writes.

His exploration begins with pi, the irrational mathematical constant 3.14159, plus some, ad infinitum. Pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, represents mystery itself. Because the sequence never repeats, pi hints at the vastness of the universe. “It speaks to a world without bounds, since its digits go on forever,” Ornes explains. Pi is used for calculations in math and physics, and employed by math artist John Sims to make music, videos, drawings, paintings, quilts, clothing, and stories. Sims created and taught a math curriculum for students at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and has spent much of his career at the intersection of math and creativity. In Ornes’ book, he explains how he’s also used this fascination to connect with other people he might not otherwise meet, such as the Amish quilters who joined him to make pi quilts with each colored panel representing a number in the mathematical sequence.

Which best serves as the title for the passage?