The Foundations of Science: Science and Hypothesis, The Value of Science, Science and Method. Henri Poincare

conclusion supposes premises; these premises themselves either are self-evident and need no demonstration, or can be established only by relying upon other propositions, and since we can not go back thus to infinity, every deductive science, and in particular geometry, must rest on a certain number of undemonstrable axioms. All treatises on geometry begin, therefore, by the enunciation of these axioms. But among these there is a distinction to be made: Some, for example, 'Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another,' are not propositions of geometry, but propositions of analysis. I regard them as analytic judgments a priori, and shall not concern myself with them.

      But I must lay stress upon other axioms which are peculiar to geometry. Most treatises enunciate three of these explicitly:

      1º Through two points can pass only one straight;

      2º The straight line is the shortest path from one point to another;

      3º Through a given point there is not more than one parallel to a given straight.

      Although generally a proof of the second of these axioms is omitted, it would be possible to deduce it from the other two and from those, much more numerous, which are implicitly admitted without enunciating them, as I shall explain further on.

      It was long sought in vain to demonstrate likewise the third axiom, known as Euclid's Postulate. What vast effort has been wasted in this chimeric hope is truly unimaginable. Finally, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and almost at the same time, a Hungarian and a Russian, Bolyai and Lobachevski, established irrefutably that this demonstration is impossible; they have almost rid us of inventors of geometries 'sans postulatum'; since then the Académie des Sciences receives only about one or two new demonstrations a year.

      The question was not exhausted; it soon made a great stride by the publication of Riemann's celebrated memoir entitled: Ueber die Hypothesen welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen. This paper has inspired most of the recent works of which I shall speak further on, and among which it is proper to cite those of Beltrami and of Helmholtz.

      The Bolyai-Lobachevski Geometry.—If it were possible to deduce Euclid's postulate from the other axioms, it is evident that in denying the postulate and admitting the other axioms, we should be led to contradictory consequences; it would therefore be impossible to base on such premises a coherent geometry.

      Now this is precisely what Lobachevski did.

      He assumes at the start that: Through a given point can be drawn two parallels to a given straight.

      And he retains besides all Euclid's other axioms. From these hypotheses he deduces a series of theorems among which it is impossible to find any contradiction, and he constructs a geometry whose faultless logic is inferior in nothing to that of the Euclidean geometry.

      The theorems are, of course, very different from those to which we are accustomed, and they can not fail to be at first a little disconcerting.

      Thus the sum of the angles of a triangle is always less than two right angles, and the difference between this sum and two right angles is proportional to the surface of the triangle.

      It is impossible to construct a figure similar to a given figure but of different dimensions.

      If we divide a circumference into n equal parts, and draw tangents at the points of division, these n tangents will form a polygon if the radius of the circle is small enough; but if this radius is sufficiently great they will not meet.

      It is useless to multiply these examples; Lobachevski's propositions have no relation to those of Euclid, but they are not less logically bound one to another.

      Riemann's Geometry.—Imagine a world uniquely peopled by beings of no thickness (height); and suppose these 'infinitely flat' animals are all in the same plane and can not get out. Admit besides that this world is sufficiently far from others to be free from their influence. While we are making hypotheses, it costs us no more to endow these beings with reason and believe them capable of creating a geometry. In that case, they will certainly attribute to space only two dimensions.

      But suppose now that these imaginary animals, while remaining without thickness, have the form of a spherical, and not of a plane, figure, and are all on the same sphere without power to get off. What geometry will they construct? First it is clear they will attribute to space only two dimensions; what will play for them the rôle of the straight line will be the shortest path from one point to another on the sphere, that is to say, an arc of a great circle; in a word, their geometry will be the spherical geometry.

      What they will call space will be this sphere on which they must stay, and on which happen all the phenomena they can know. Their space will therefore be unbounded since on a sphere one can always go forward without ever being stopped, and yet it will be finite; one can never find the end of it, but one can make a tour of it.

      Well, Riemann's geometry is spherical geometry extended to three dimensions. To construct it, the German mathematician had to throw overboard, not only Euclid's postulate, but also the first axiom: Only one straight can pass through two points.

      On a sphere, through two given points we can draw in general only one great circle (which, as we have just seen, would play the rôle of the straight for our imaginary beings); but there is an exception: if the two given points are diametrically opposite, an infinity of great circles can be drawn through them.

      In the same way, in Riemann's geometry (at least in one of its forms), through two points will pass in general only a single straight; but there are exceptional cases where through two points an infinity of straights can pass.

      There is a sort of opposition between Riemann's geometry and that of Lobachevski.

      Thus the sum of the angles of a triangle is:

      Equal to two right angles in Euclid's geometry;

      Less than two right angles in that of Lobachevski;

      Greater than two right angles in that of Riemann.

      The number of straights through a given point that can be drawn coplanar to a given straight, but nowhere meeting it, is equal:

      To one in Euclid's geometry;

      To zero in that of Riemann;

      To infinity in that of Lobachevski.

      Add that Riemann's space is finite, although unbounded, in the sense given above to these two words.

      The Surfaces of Constant Curvature.—One objection still remained possible. The theorems of Lobachevski and of Riemann present no contradiction; but however numerous the consequences these two geometers have drawn from their hypotheses, they must have stopped before exhausting them, since their number would be infinite; who can say then that if they had pushed their deductions farther they would not have eventually reached some contradiction?

      This difficulty does not exist for Riemann's geometry, provided it is limited to two dimensions; in fact, as we have seen, two-dimensional Riemannian geometry does not differ from spherical geometry, which is only a branch of ordinary geometry, and consequently is beyond all discussion.

      Beltrami, in correlating likewise Lobachevski's two-dimensional geometry with a branch of ordinary geometry, has equally refuted the objection so far as it is concerned.

      Here is how he accomplished it. Consider any figure on a surface. Imagine this figure traced on a flexible and inextensible canvas applied over this surface in such a way that when the canvas is displaced and deformed, the various lines of this figure can change their form without changing their length. In general, this flexible and inextensible figure can not be displaced without leaving the surface; but there are certain particular surfaces for which such a movement would be possible; these are the surfaces of constant curvature.

      If we resume the comparison made above and imagine beings without thickness living on one of these surfaces, they will regard as possible the motion of a figure all of whose lines remain constant in length. On the contrary,