| | Postulates and Principles |
 | | However, we now understand that Euclid 's fifth postulate is logically independent of the rest of Euclid 's logical structure. |
 | | Einstein formally adopted this conjecture as a postulate, but on a more fundamental level it serves as a principle, since it entails the decision to organize our knowledge in terms of coordinate systems with respect to which the equations of mechanics hold good, i.e., inertial coordinate systems. |
 | | In view of this, some have wondered why he did not simply dispense with his "second postulate” and assert that the "laws of electrodynamics and optics" in the statement of the first principle are none other than Maxwell's equations. |
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