elliott understood immediately . his head swam . the relief was so overwhelming , he almost felll down . this arithmetic was a game , and there were other games .
"got iit ?" pell said "satisfied ? now beat it , would you ? please ?"
on his tenth birthday , his father gave elliott an old edition of euclid's elements . winter had brought its cold wind to sweep down on the island , elliott stayed up in his room for two weeks . when he came down he said ," i don't understand this at all ."
"let's have a look ." they opened the book to euclid's assumptions , the logical statements that are self evident and are tghe basis of plane geometry .
"two pionts make a line ," the book said .
"why ? elliott said ." the line could stop halfway to the second point . or the two points could be top of each other ,so it looks like one point . or the line could be wavy ."
"oh , i quite agree . but you have to tghink like euclid ," his father said . he smoked marlboros . the smell of math to elliott forever more would be connected to the smelll of burning tobacco. they werre in pop's warm den , piles of papers and books every sitting on the chair ub=nder the window , reading a book , her brown hair lit the lamp .
"euclid develped a system that hangs together , that's the main thing . let's try to make his sentence about points more accurate . he's saying that if you take any two points in the universe , the simplest relation bettween them is generally a directional arrow that we call a line .
"got iit ?" pell said "satisfied ? now beat it , would you ? please ?"
on his tenth birthday , his father gave elliott an old edition of euclid's elements . winter had brought its cold wind to sweep down on the island , elliott stayed up in his room for two weeks . when he came down he said ," i don't understand this at all ."
"let's have a look ." they opened the book to euclid's assumptions , the logical statements that are self evident and are tghe basis of plane geometry .
"two pionts make a line ," the book said .
"why ? elliott said ." the line could stop halfway to the second point . or the two points could be top of each other ,so it looks like one point . or the line could be wavy ."
"oh , i quite agree . but you have to tghink like euclid ," his father said . he smoked marlboros . the smell of math to elliott forever more would be connected to the smelll of burning tobacco. they werre in pop's warm den , piles of papers and books every sitting on the chair ub=nder the window , reading a book , her brown hair lit the lamp .
"euclid develped a system that hangs together , that's the main thing . let's try to make his sentence about points more accurate . he's saying that if you take any two points in the universe , the simplest relation bettween them is generally a directional arrow that we call a line .
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