“Some of the groundbreaking work in the treatment of n-dimensional geometry—was carried out by Hermann Günther Grassmann. ...Grassmann was responsible for the creation of an abstract science of "spaces," inside which the usual geometry was only a special case. Grassmann published his pioneering ideas (originating a branch of mathematics known as linear algebra) in 1844, in a book commonly known as Ausdehnungslehre... Grassmann's suggestion that BA = -AB violates one of the sacrosanct laws of arithmetic... Grassmann faced up squarely to this disturbing possibility and invented a new consistent algebra (known as exterior algebra) that allowed for several processes of multiplication and at the same time could handle geometry in any number of dimensions.”
“From the imputation of confounding axioms with assumed concepts Euclid himself, however, is free. Euclid incorporated the former among his postulates while he separated the latter as common concepts—a...”
Hermann Grassmann
“Geometry can in no way be viewed... as a branch of mathematics; instead, geometry relates to something already given in nature, namely, space. I... realized that there must be a branch of mathematics ...”
Hermann Grassmann
“It is clear... that the concept of space can in no wise be generated by thought. ...Whoever maintains the contrary must undertake to derive the dimensions of space from the pure laws of thought—a prob...”
Hermann Grassmann
“I remain completely confident that the labour I have expended on the science presented here and which has demanded a significant part of my life as well as the most strenuous application of my powers,...”
Hermann Grassmann
“A work on tidal theory... led me to Lagrange's Mécanique analytique and thereby I returned to those ideas of analysis. All the developments in that work were transformed through the principles of the ...”
Hermann Grassmann