Kahiki Mosaic & other new works... (page 8) - Other Crafts

T TravelingJones Grand Member (8 years) Eastern Shores of Western Civilization Joined: Mar 11, 2006 Posts: 927	T TravelingJones Posted posted on Tue, Nov 13, 2007 2:30 PM M&M, Stop thinking about some sort of strict ordering of dimensions. Consider the three spatial dimensions we are normally familiar with. Where YOU are right now, you can divide them into "forward-backward","left-right", and "up-down". Now turn 45 degrees, or tilt your head. Those directions are no longer special. When we talk about three dimensions, we mean that there are three ways to move, but there is no "first dimension". To understand a small, curled up dimension, it will take an analogy. Take a piece of paper and roll it into a tube with a small diameter. For the sake of analogy, pretend that the tube is infinitely long. What you have now is a two-dimensional surface, with one large (infinite) dimension, and one small dimension that is curled up. Anything confined to the surface of the tube will move freely along the long dimension, but will not be able to go far along the short, curled-up dimension. The three spatial dimensions that we use may be infinite, but they're certainly very big. Any extra dimensions must be small (or else we would observe a number of strange effects, such as a dramatic strengthening of gravity at small distances. This "smallness" is measured the same way we measure any size --in length. Extra dimensions must have a small diameter. I forget what experimental bounds have been placed on the maximum diameter, let's just say that they're smaller than a bread-box. Time extends all the way back to big bang (over 13 billion years ago) and from what we can tell, will have no end in the future. Believe it or not, the relationship between time and space is pretty well-understood by physicists. Minkowski first figured it out, and Einstein helped complete the picture. It is possible (and meaningful) to measure time in meters. Anyway, time is a "large" dimension. Mosaic prowess clearly substantiates art. :cry:

M&M,

Stop thinking about some sort of strict ordering of dimensions. Consider the three spatial dimensions we are normally familiar with. Where YOU are right now, you can divide them into "forward-backward","left-right", and "up-down". Now turn 45 degrees, or tilt your head. Those directions are no longer special. When we talk about three dimensions, we mean that there are three ways to move, but there is no "first dimension".

To understand a small, curled up dimension, it will take an analogy. Take a piece of paper and roll it into a tube with a small diameter. For the sake of analogy, pretend that the tube is infinitely long. What you have now is a two-dimensional surface, with one large (infinite) dimension, and one small dimension that is curled up. Anything confined to the surface of the tube will move freely along the long dimension, but will not be able to go far along the short, curled-up dimension.

The three spatial dimensions that we use may be infinite, but they're certainly very big. Any extra dimensions must be small (or else we would observe a number of strange effects, such as a dramatic strengthening of gravity at small distances. This "smallness" is measured the same way we measure any size --in length. Extra dimensions must have a small diameter. I forget what experimental bounds have been placed on the maximum diameter, let's just say that they're smaller than a bread-box.

Time extends all the way back to big bang (over 13 billion years ago) and from what we can tell, will have no end in the future. Believe it or not, the relationship between time and space is pretty well-understood by physicists. Minkowski first figured it out, and Einstein helped complete the picture. It is possible (and meaningful) to measure time in meters. Anyway, time is a "large" dimension.

Mosaic prowess clearly substantiates art. :cry:

Post #343696 by TravelingJones on Tue, Nov 13, 2007 2:30 PM