From the Flat Earth to the Topology of Space-Time

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter reveals that the three-dimensional space around is one of the most fundamental experiences. To turn this personal experience into a scientific concept, one has to perform a number of tasks. First, one has to describe in more detail the three-dimensional space experienced in everyday life. Second, one has to extend the concept to distances much larger than those of the immediate experience— that is, to astronomical distances. Third, one has to extend the concept to very small distances of the order of atomic and nuclear distances. One has been working on these tasks, since the beginning of science and there is not yet any end in sight. The concept of space has several roots in the Greek world. The best known one is the geometry of Euclid. This geometry and its critical analysis led in the nineteenth century to the concept of metric that in turn led to the particular concept of space-time, on which the general theory of relativity is based.