finite geometry

But the work of von Staudt, Fano, and Veblen led even to the construction of finite geometries having only finitely many points and lines. Originally having only incidence relations, these finite geometries have been extensively developed through the introduction of suitable axioms of order and congruence by Järnefelt and Kustaanheimo, who have proposed their use in physics to solve certain paradoxes due apparently to the use of continuous variables.

The coordinates of geometry were as incompatible with representation theory as were the splitting fields of representation theory with finite geometry.