Theories and Axioms

      When you're a kid you think your penis is just for peeing. When you're old you know that for sure.A perfect example of a theory and an axiom.But what is an axiom?Well an axiom or a postulate is basically a theory that doesn't have to be proven because it's true.

     For example the "parallel lines postulate",it's the 5th postulate of Euclid and it holds the basis to plane geometry that we all learn in school.In Euclidean geometry, two lines are parallel if their alternate interior angles are congruent,thus through an exterior point to a line there can be drawn only one parallel line to the first line. And we all believed it because it was our teachers saying it, if not a teacher than who shall we believe?

    Well my math teacher from junior high also said that we should  never believe everything we are told (come to think of it maybe he was a factor in my current thought processes), because even a postulate can be ignored and proven otherwise.

     Nikolai Lobachevsky invented a so-called hyperbolic geometry,he simply replaced Euclid's parallel postulate with the one stating that there is more than one line that can be extended through any given point parallel to another line of which that point is not part. Apparently this geometry is so cool that scientists use it in general relativity physics.

     Another smart dude was Bernhard Riemann who invented elliptic theory which states that through an external point you can't draw any parallel line to another line.In this type of geometry, the surface of a sphere is the plane and great circles are the lines. A great circle is the largest circle on a sphere and divides the plane into two equal parts. Since it is the largest possible circle, it has the least possible curve and is the shortest distance between two points.Funny how this is also used in general relativity research.

     Conclusion: like I said before we have to think outside the box,we have to learn our kids to think outside the box,otherwise we are as evolved as a man who lived 2300 years ago (no offense Euclid,you rocked baby).

p.s.:that's a light bulb in case my paint skills are not awesome enough