"It was long accepted as a fact that a metrical character could be described by means of a quadratic differential form, but the fact was not clearly understood. Riemann many years ago pointed out that the metrical groundform might, with equal right, essentially, be a homogeneous function of the fourth order in the differentials, or even a function built up in some other way. and that it need not even depend rationally on the differentials. But we dare not stop even at that point."
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Hermann Weyl, Space—Time—Matter (1922) p. 138.
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Bernhard Riemann
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (September 17, 1826 – July 20, 1866) was an influential German mathematician who made lasting and revolutionary contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry.
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