Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions — John Shaqi
Flatland: A Romance of Many DimensionsAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Science
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Fourth dimension
It will be obvious, to every child in Spaceland who has touched the
threshold of Geometrical Studies, that, if I can bring my eye so that
its glance may bisect an angle (A) of the approaching stranger, my view
will lie as it were evenly between the two sides that are next to me
(viz. CA and AB), so that I shall contemplate the two impartially, and
both will appear of the same size.
Now in the case of (1) the Merchant, what shall I see? I shall see a
straight line DAE, in which the middle point (A) will be very bright
because it is nearest to me; but on either side the line will shade
away _rapidly into dimness_, because the sides AC and AB _recede
rapidly into the fog;_ and what appear to me as the Merchant’s
extremities, viz. D and E, will be _very dim indeed_.
On the other hand in the case of (2) the Physician, though I shall here
also see a line (D′A′E′) with a bright centre (A′), yet it will shade
away _less rapidly_ to dimness, because the sides (A′C′, A′B′) _recede
less rapidly into the fog:_ and what appear to me the Physician’s
extremities, viz. D′ and E′, will not be _not so dim_ as the
extremities of the Merchant.
The Reader will probably understand from these two instances how—after
a very long training supplemented by constant experience—it is possible
for the well-educated classes among us to discriminate with fair
accuracy between the middle and lowest orders, by the sense of sight.
If my Spaceland Patrons have grasped this general conception, so far as
to conceive the possibility of it and not to reject my account as
altogether incredible—I shall have attained all I can reasonably
expect. Were I to attempt further details I should only perplex. Yet
for the sake of the young and inexperienced, who may perchance
infer—from the two simple instances I have given above, of the manner
in which I should recognize my Father and my Sons—that Recognition by
sight is an easy affair, it may be needful to point out that in actual
life most of the problems of Sight Recognition are far more subtle and
complex.
If for example, when my Father, the Triangle, approaches me, he happens
to present his side to me instead of his angle, then, until I have
asked him to rotate, or until I have edged my eye around him, I am for
the moment doubtful whether he may not be a Straight Line, or, in other
words, a Woman. Again, when I am in the company of one of my two
hexagonal Grandsons, contemplating one of his sides (AB) full front, it
will be evident from the accompanying diagram that I shall see one
whole line (AB) in comparative brightness (shading off hardly at all at
the ends) and two smaller lines (CA and BD) dim throughout and shading
away into greater dimness towards the extremities C and D.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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