"manifold" in mathematics
Posted by
Nick Thompson on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/manifold-in-mathematics-tp3385914.html
I wonder if anybody has any comment to make on the following passage from EB holt? (Remember, I am the guy who tends to ask questions of PEOPLE when he should look them up, so feel free to ignore me here.)
Holt (1914) writes: "If one is walking in the woods, and remarks that "All this is Epping Forest," one may mean that this entire manifold of some square miles is the forest; or else, that every twig and leaf which one sees, in short, every least fragment of the whole is Epping Forest. The former meaning is the true one; the latter meaning is absolutely false. Everyone admits that while a circle is a manifold of points, a single point is not a circle; while a house is a manifold of bricks, boards and nails and any single brick is not a house. "
I am interested in this concept of "manifold" . Can anybody make the metaphor come alive for me? Is it like a shroud?
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
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