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08814_Field_TCGG T579.txt
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1996-04-10
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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