Ideas of Space: Euclidean, non-Euclidean, and Relativistic

264 Pages·1989·10.901 MB·English

by  Jeremy Gray

JEREMY GRAY
Ideas of Space
Euclidean, Non-Euclidean
and Relativistic
SECOND EDITION
OXFORD SCIENCE PUBLICATIONS
THOMASJ. BATA LIBRARY
TRENT UNIVERSITY

Ideas of Space
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Ideas of Space
Euclidean, Non-Euclidean, and Relativistic
Second Edition
JEREMY GRAY
CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD
1989
/
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp
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Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press, New York
First published 1979
Second edition 1989
© Jeremy Gray, 1989
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrie val system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
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This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Gray, Jeremy, 1947-
Ideas of space. — 2nd edition
1. Space. Mathematical models, history
I. Title
516
ISBN 0-19-853935-5
ISBN 0-19-853934-7 (Pbk)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gray, Jeremy, 1947-
Ideas of space: Euclidean, non-Euclidean, and relativistic /
Jeremy Gray. — 2nd ed.
Bibliography: p. Includes index.
1. Geometry—History. 2. Space and time—Mathematical models—
History. I. Title.
QA21.G7 1989 516—dcl9 89-3012 CIP
ISBN 0-19-853935-5
ISBN 0-19-853934-7 (pbk.)
Typeset by
Cotswold Typesetting Ltd, Gloucester
Printed and bound in
Great Britain by Biddles Ltd,
Guildford and King’s Lynn
Preface to the second edition
I have made a number of changes for the second edition, which make the book
more historical. The most significant of these is the new chapter on Islamic
investigations of the parallel postulate, which replaces some material on the
Greek treatment of incommensurability. This not only does more justice to the
historical story, but helps to explain how the postulate can be investigated at
all. 1 would particularly like to draw the reader’s attention to two recent books
on the subject: K. Jaouiche, La theorie des paralleles en pays d'Islam (1986),
which contains French translations of many original sources, and B. A.
Rosenfeld, A history of non-Euclidean geometry (1989). I am most grateful to
Abe Shenitzer for supplying me with a copy of the galley proofs of his English
translation of Rosenfeld's book, which has a very detailed account of non-
Euclidean geometry in Islam (among other topics). The work of Rosenfeld and
Jaouiche means that for the first time we are in the position of having
translations and thorough accounts of Islamic contributions in this area based
on original sources, and I have happily made use of them.
I have taken the opportunity to correct a number of small mistakes, and to
supply more references to original sources. The availability of primary sources
in translation has also been increased somewhat with the publication of
J. Fauvel and J. J. Gray (eds.), The history of mathematics—a reader
(Macmillan, 1987). Finally, I would like to thank those who responded, in the
spirit of my earlier invitation, with critical and helpful comments, and to
repeat that invitation here.
Milton Keynes J.J.G.
1988