The most ancient of the SUPERB theories is the Euclidean geometry that we learn something of at school. The ancients may not have regarded it as a physical theory at all, but that is indeed what it was: a sublime and superbly accurate theory of physical space – and of the geometry of rigid bodies. Why do I refer to Euclidean geometry as a physical theory rather than a branch of mathematics? Ironically, one of the clearest reasons for taking that view is that we now know that Euclidean geometry is not entirely accurate as a description of the physical space that we actually inhabit! Einstein’s
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