Nikolai Lobachevsky - Impact

Impact

E.T.Bell in his book Men of Mathematics wrote about Lobachevsky's influence on the following development of mathematics:

The boldness of his challenge and its successful outcome have inspired mathematicians and scientists in general to challenge other 'axioms' or accepted 'truths', for example the 'law' of causality which, for centuries, have seemed as necessary to straight thinking as Euclid's postulate appeared till Lobatchewsky discarded it. The full impact of the Lobatchewskian method of challenging axioms has probably yet to be felt. It is no exaggeration to call Lobatchewsky the Copernicus of Geometry, for geometry is only a part of the vaster domain which he renovated; it might even be just to designate him as a Copernicus of all thought.

Read more about this topic:  Nikolai Lobachevsky

Famous quotes containing the word impact:

    If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.
    Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)

    The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.
    Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)

    Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.
    David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)