| In this sequel to Swift's classic Gulliver's Travels (which is also mathematical), Barnard College philosopher Montague tells us of his dreams in which
Gulliver shares with him the non-Euclidean geometry of his voyages for
Riemann's Land and Lobachevskia. The point seems to be to emphasize the
Aristotelean philosophical argument that space is neither finite nor
infinite, but rather that these properties depend on your notion of
measurement.
The story was actually presented as a speech before the Forum of the
Society of Friends of Scripta Mathematica and then published in Vol. XIII
(1947) of Scripta Mathematica, a quarterly journal published by Yeshiva
University.
Thanks to Sandro Caparrini (Torino, Italy) for finding this gem! |
