Barry Simon on old Euclid

I appreciated reading   " A  Euclidean necessity " by Barry Simon, the

    chairman of the Caltech math department. It is not stretching it to

    associate the logical training offered by those formal proofs in

    high school geometry -of the recent past - with good citizenship.

         Self - esteem in the real competitive world is not acquired by

    experiencing Euclid  " without tears  ".

       Great thinkers of our own century- Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell,

    and others - experienced Euclidean geometry in their youth has near

    epiphany , the real music of the spheres, the cosmic MIND OF GOD .

         Once you grasp the concept of logical proof, the  arguments from

    Authority have been dealt a mortal blow. Nothing in geometry is true

    because he said so . A theorem is true because he proved  it in a

    logical way - that has stood the test of time for centuries.

          It is no coincidence that our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln,

    while practicing law amused himself and sharpened his debating skills

    by studying old Euclid.

         Euclid of course does not give us Absolute Truth. But it is no small

    thing to get to the Moon , Venus, Mars and the outer solar system - guided

    by his wonderful system of geometry.

         It never ceases to amaze me : if you can measure the height of a high

    mountain , you can find the diameter of the earth - knowing that you can

    find the distance to the moon , then to the Sun and eventually to the planets.

         But how can this  knowledge PROFIT a man ? Give him a dime, Euclid

    would say .