Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2016
In my 1982 Presidential Address to the Mathematical Association I tried to explain the general role of Geometry in Mathematics so it seems appropriate, on this centenary occasion, that I should move beyond the confines of Mathematics and discuss the interrelation of Geometry and Physics. There are two very good reasons for doing this. One is historical and arises from the close ties between the two subjects in their early evolution. A second and more topical reason is that, over the past two decades, there has been a remarkable burst of interaction of a quite unexpected kind between Geometry and Physics.