Bill Cunningham wrote: >I've noticed they've confused axioms >which are taken to be true as a ground work for something with Euclidean >postulates, which are truths to be self evident. > > (a) You have that backwards. Euclid had axioms, which were taken as self-evident (e.g., "things equal to the same thing are equal to each other") and postulates, which were taken as the basis of geometry (e.g., "all right angles are equal"). (b) Modern mathematicians do not differentiate between axioms and postulates, because nothing is self-evident. "Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other" is not a statement of absolute truth, it's a property of the equality relation you choose to use. -- /===============================================================\ |John Stracke |jstracke@centivinc.com | |Principal Engineer|http://www.centivinc.com | |Centiv |My opinions are my own. | |===============================================================| |If you're going to walk on thin ice, you might as well *dance*!| \===============================================================/