Entirely agree. To be honest, I think it rather marvellous that people were able to imagine, then reason about, so much precision so long before any physical re

Entirely agree. To be honest, I think it rather marvellous that people were able to imagine, then reason about, so much precision so long before any physical representation of it was possible. The Babylonians could calculate to a ten thousandth of an inch, but no human could measure the physical equivalent until Henry Maudslay. In a way the whole Industrial Revolution rested on people realising that the five-thousand-year-old mathematical view of abstract truth of "shape" could be rendered as physical reality with the right techniques... but coming up with those abstractions in a world where the roundest thing came off a potter's wheel and the basic unit of length was some fellow's forearm was an even more impressive achievement. We should not take it for granted just because it was so long ago.