Scientific Romances (First Series)Hinton, Charles Howard
Philosophy
Scientific Romances (First Series)
Hinton, Charles Howard
Fourth dimension
The matter is of course perfectly open. The only way is this, by
adopting the assumption of a higher space to predict what the actions of
the molecules will be, then if a number of predictions are verified the
evidence will become strong. And I feel sure that there are some very
curious things to be made out here. For my own part the evidence of the
reality of four-dimensional space—in the sense in which we say that our
space is real—does not rest on the consideration of the molecular
movements about which it is not easy to get clear ideas, but on the
study of the facts of space. I hardly think that any one who spent a few
years in becoming familiar with the facts of space, not by the means of
symbolism or reasoning but by pure observation, could doubt that there
are really four dimensions.
In noticing the simpler actions and their image actions we find that the
real image does not coexist with its original, but rather follows and
succeeds it. If we push against a board the board yields, and springs
back when we leave off pushing. If the original displacement is
permanent as a point pressed against an elastic surface and making the
surface yield, then the image of this displacement is potential; it is
not actually there, but comes into play as soon as the original
displacement is removed.
Now in the electrical actions we have assumed both the original twist
and the image twist as concurrently existing.
In certain cases there is no doubt that they are coexistent as when a
glass rod is rubbed by silk.
But if the case of the action of a charged poker on an uncharged one be
examined it will be found that there is nothing to prove that the image
twist comes into existence until the original one is removed.
When the charged poker is brought near the other, the remote end of the
second is affected with the same kind of electricity as is on the
charged poker.
The appearance is just the same as if a thin wall were exposed to a
pressure on one side, and the other side were to bulge out. The
displacement is transmitted through the conductor.
It is only when the original charged body is removed that the image
charge is found to be in existence on the second conductor. There are
some peculiarities, however, which make electrical displacements
different in their appearances from ordinary displacements.
No body can be made to move in any direction without imparting an equal
motion in an opposite direction to another body—_e.g._, the motion of a
cannon ball is equalled by the recoil of the cannon.
And so no twist can be given to the particles of a body without an image
twist being given to other particles.
Now the image displacement or rectilinear motion, in the case of a
rectilinear motion, in straightforward movement seems to remain in the
place where it was produced. The recoil of the gun carriage produces a
strain on its bearings and friction, which produce heat, which gradually
dissipates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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