homogeneous visual space. Why? Because number, the 
language of science, is a fiction for retranslating the Euclidean 
space fiction back into auditory and tactile space.

     The example Dantzig uses on page 139 concerns the 
measurement of the length of an arc:

          Our notion of the length of an arc of a curve may 
     serve as an illustration. The physical concept rests on 
     that of a bent wire. We imagine that we have 
     straightened  the wire without stretching  it; then the 
     segment of the straight line will serve as the measure of 
     the length of the arc. Now what do we mean by ‘without 
     stretching’? We mean without a change in length. But 
     this term implies that we already know something about 
     the length of the arc. Such a formulation is obviously a