Scientific Romances (First Series)Hinton, Charles Howard
Philosophy
Scientific Romances (First Series)
Hinton, Charles Howard
Fourth dimension
And just as the wave displacement produces a real image of itself in a
medium which it does not distort as a whole, so there is nothing
arbitrary in our assuming that an electric twist calls up the real image
of itself in an insulating medium—that is, a medium which it cannot
twist as a whole.
If L M N O is a wave motion, then L′ M′ N′ O is its image, as produced
by moving it round out of the plane of the paper—Diagram II. If the wave
disturbance is moved round in the plane of the paper, the original wave
L M N O becomes L′ M′ N′ O—Diagram III.—a shape which bears no
resemblance to the transmitted wave.
Consider O N M L to be a bent piece of wire lying on the paper; if it is
moved round O, keeping on the paper, it becomes O N′ M′ L′. To become
like O N′ M′ L′ in Diagram II. it must move up from the paper and down
again on the right.
Thus adopting this artificial aid to thought—that a displacement calls
up an image displacement—we get the rule that this displacement, the
image, can be got from the original displacement by moving the original
displacement half-way round, using as the plane in which the turning is
made that plane which is given us by taking these two directions—the
direction in which the wave is moving, and a direction at right angles
to the directions in which the displacements which form the wave take
place.
Thus, with the wave motion shown, if we take the direction towards the
top of the page to be the up direction, and that from left to right to
be the sideways direction, then out of the paper towards us is the
“near” direction. So, too, in this case we have to turn the wave
disturbance out of the plane of the paper, and each point of it, to
produce the image, must turn in a circle (going half-way round it) lying
in a plane which has the two directions near and sideways. The motions
of the particles themselves are in the plane of the paper. So to get the
image by turning we use a direction—the “near” direction, which is not
involved in the wave motion itself.
[Illustration: Diagram III.]
Hence we may state, as a tentative principle, that when a disturbance
takes place in a medium which will not be disturbed as a whole, then
such disturbance is accompanied by a real image of itself; and this real
image of itself is the configuration which would be obtained by twisting
the original disturbance round in a direction not contained in the
original disturbance.
Thus the disturbance O N′ M′ L′ is obtained by twisting the disturbance
L M N O round. The direction in which it is twisted is the direction
coming out from the plane of the paper.
Now if this plane disturbance is in nature accompanied by its real
image, why should not a twist such as takes place in the electric
current also be accompanied by its image twist when it impinges on a
medium which it cannot twist as a whole—that is, when it comes to an
insulator in its path?
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