Geometry Quotes - Page 9

• ...the differential element of non-Euclidean spaces is Euclidean. This fact, however, is analogous to the relations between a straight line and a curve, and cannot lead to an epistemological priority of Euclidean geometry, in contrast to the views of certain authors.

  Hans Reichenbach

  Space, Curves, Views

  Hans Reichenbach (1958). “Philosophie Der Raum-Zeit-Lehre”, p.83, Courier Corporation

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• ..if a special geometry has to be invented in order to account for a falling apple, even Newton might be appalled at the complications which would ensue when really difficult problems are tackled.

  Oliver Lodge

  Fall, Order, Apples

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• Visual forms are not perceived differently from colors or brightness. They are sense qualities, and the visual character of geometry consists in these sense qualities.

  Hans Reichenbach

  Character, Color, Quality

  Hans Reichenbach (1958). “Philosophie Der Raum-Zeit-Lehre”, p.84, Courier Corporation

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• The concept of congruence in Euclidean geometry is not exactly the same as that in non-Euclidean geometry. ..."Congruent" means in Euclidean geometry the same as "determining parallelism," a meaning which it does not have in non-Euclidean geometry.

  Hans Reichenbach

  Mean, Doe, Congruence

  "The Philosophy of Space and Time". Book by Hans Reichenbach, 1957.

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• Now, a 45-degree angle is not something we deal with in finance. It's something you see in a high school geometry class. Performance like that has never been recorded in human history.

  Harry Markopolos

  School, High School, Finance

  Source: www.gq.com

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• Seriously, you don't have to know English. It'd be nice, a nice little plus. We don't want miracles. You don't have to know the country's language. But just some shapes, that's all. A square. A little geometry.

  David Spade

  Country, Nice, Squares

  "David Spade: Take the Hit". Documentary, Comedy, www.imdb.com. 1998.

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• I would say, if you like, that the party is like an out-moded mathematics...that is to say, the mathematics of Euclid. We need to invent a non-Euclidian mathematics with respect to political discipline.

  Alain Badiou

  Party, Discipline, Political

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• [In comedy] you never want to leave the actors hanging out to dry. So you need to come up with funny individual stories for each character, and then you do this sort of comedy geometry, weaving them together. Once you've got a funny structure and you know why the scenes are funny, then you get super funny people to say your own lines, say their own lines, say things in their own way, and every scene is a live rewrite in front of the camera.

  Jeff Schaffer

  Character, People, Together

  Source: espn.go.com

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• No one fully understands spinors. Their algebra is formally understood but their general significance is mysterious. In some sense they describe the 'square root' of geometry and, just as understanding the square root of -1 took centuries, the same might be true of spinors.

  Michael Atiyah

  Squares, Roots, Understanding

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• We could present spatially an atomic fact which contradicted the laws of physics, but not one which contradicted the laws of geometry.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Math, Law, Facts

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (2014). “The Tractatus According to Its Own Form”, p.38, Lulu.com

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• Psychoanalysis and Zen, in my private psychic geometry, are equal to nicotine. They are anti-existential. Nicotine quarantines one out of existence.

  Norman Mailer

  Psychics, Quarantine, Existential

  Norman Mailer, Michael Lennon (1988). “Conversations with Norman Mailer”, p.45, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• The prime ideal is a princess of the world of ideals. Her father is the prince 'Point' in the world of geometry. Her mother is the princess 'Prime Numbers' in the world of numbers. She inherits the purity from her parents.

  Kato

  Mother, Father, Princess

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• Enchanting is not the word that would immediately spring to mind when describing a play that deals with fractal geometry, iterated algorithms, chaos theory and the second law of thermodynamics, but it is a perfect fit for Tom Stoppard's astonishing 1993 play, which is as beautiful as it is brilliant. This is one Stoppard drama that you don't have to be Einstein to understand -- you can feel it as well as think it. (...) Breathtaking, exhilarating and deeply satisfying.

  Lyn Gardner

  Beautiful, Drama, Spring

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• Here I beg you to observe in passing that the scruples that prevented ancient writers from using arithmetical terms in geometry, and which can only be a consequence of their inability to perceive clearly the relation between these two subjects, introduced much obscurity and confusion into their explanations.

  Rene Descartes

  Two, Confusion, Experience

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• And in between the two, in between the sky and the sea, were all the winds. And there were all the nights and all the moons. To be a castaway is to be a point perpetually at the centre of a circle. However much things may appear to change-the sea may shift from whisper to rage, the sky might go from fresh blue to blinding white to darkest black-the geometry never changes. Your gaze is always a radius. The circumference is ever great. In fact, the circles multiply. To be a castaway is to be caught in a harrowing ballet of circles.

  Yann Martel

  Moon, Night, Blue

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• Every field has its taboos. In algebraic geometry the taboos are (1) writing a draft that can be followed by anyone but two or three of one's closest friends, (2) claiming that a result has applications, (3) mentioning the word 'combinatorial,' and (4) claiming that algebraic geometry existed before Grothendieck (only some handwaving references to 'the Italians' are allowed provided they are not supported by specific references).

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Writing, Two, Three

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• ...to characterize the import of pure geometry, we might use the standard form of a movie-disclaimer: No portrayal of the characteristics of geometrical figures or of the spatial properties of relationships of actual bodies is intended, and any similarities between the primitive concepts and their customary geometrical connotations are purely coincidental.

  Carl Gustav Hempel

  Math, Might Use, Body

  Carl Gustav Hempel (2001). “The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality”, p.24, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Galois read the geometry from cover to cover as easily as other boys read a pirate yarn.

  Eric Temple Bell

  Teenager, Science, Boys

  "Men of Mathematics".

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• For each successive class of phenomena, a new calculus or a new geometry, as the case might be, which might prove not wholly inadequate to the subtlety of nature.

  Henry John Stephen Smith

  Class, Might, Cases

  Henry John Stephen Smith (1894). “Collected Mathematical Papers; Edited by J. W. L. Glaisher ... with a Mathematical Introduction by the Editor, Biographical Sketchesand a Portrait ...”

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• I write rhymes with addition and algebra, mental geometry.

  Ice T

  Education, Writing, Mathematics

  Song: Mind Over Matter, Album: O.G. Original Gangster

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• The attempt to apply rational arithmetic to a problem in geometry resulted in the first crisis in the history of mathematics. The two relatively simple problems -- the determination of the diagonal of a square and that of the circumference of a circle -- revealed the existence of new mathematical beings for which no place could be found within the rational domain.

  David van Dantzig

  Determination, Simple, Squares

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• Well, I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this geometry of Four Dimensions for some time. Some of my results are curious. For instance, here is a portrait of a man at eight years old, another atfifteen, another at seventeen, another at twenty-three, and so on. All these are evidently sections, as it were, Three-Dimensional representations of his Four-Dimensioned being, which is a fixed and unalterable thing.

  H. G. Wells

  Time, Men, Eight

  H G Wells (2004). “The Time Machine (Sparklesoup Classics)”, p.6, Sparklesoup LLC

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• The importance of infinite processes for the practical exigencies of technical life can hardly be overemphasized. Practically all applications of arithmetic to geometry, mechanics, physics and even statistics involve these processes directly and indirectly.

  Tobias Dantzig

  Statistics, Physics, Infinite

  Tobias Dantzig (2005). “Number: The Language of Science”, Dutton Juvenile

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• A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry.

  John B. S. Haldane

  Time, Believe, Math

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• Whereas young people become accomplished in geometry and mathematics, and wise within these limits, prudent young people do not seem to be found. The reason is that prudence is concerned with particulars as well as universals, and particulars become known from experience, but a young person lacks experience, since some length of time is needed to produce it.

  Aristotle

  Wise, Knowledge, Learning

  Aristotle, Terence Irwin (2000). “Nicomachean Ethics (Second Edition)”, p.93, Hackett Publishing

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