Introduction to Geometry

Abstract

A beginner who thinks that mathematics is either algebra or geometry may not be so very far wrong: other branches of mathematics belong in one camp or the other, with little ambiguity; and mathematicians seem born to be either algebraists or geometers, rather as men are said to be inherently either beer drinkers or wine drinkers. There are fashions in mathematics as elsewhere, and of late the algebraists may have had too much of the upper hand–in some academic quarters, 'geometer' can sound almost like a nasty word.