Chapter 1
Descartes’ Discovery
There is a collection of old German tales that take place sometime in the 17th century, and they are about an alleged town called Schilda, whose inhabitants were not known for their intelligence. Here is one story [12]:
An army was approaching Schilda and would likely conquer it. The town council, in charge of the town treasure, had to hide it from the invaders. What better way than to sink it in the nearby town lake? So the town council members board the town boat, head for the middle of the lake, and sink the treasure. The town treasurer gets out his pocket knife and cuts a deep notch in the boat’s rim, right where the treasure went down. Why would he do that, the other council members wonder? “So that we will ...
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