Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular ScienceNewcomb, Simon
Science
Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science
Newcomb, Simon
Astronomy; Compass; Flying-machines; Hyperspace; Learning and scholarship; Rain-making
Now let us suppose two pyramids similarly related. All the faces and
angles of the one correspond to the faces and angles of the other. Yet,
lift them about as we please, we could never fit them together. If we
fit the bases together the two will lie on opposite sides, one being
below the other. But the dweller in four dimensions of space will fit
them together without any trouble. By the mere turning over of one he
will convert it into the other without any change whatever in the
relative position of its parts. What he could do with the pyramids he
could also do with one of us if we allowed him to take hold of us and
turn a somersault with us in the fourth dimension. We should then come
back into our natural space, but changed as if we were seen in a
mirror. Everything on us would be changed from right to left, even the
seams in our clothes, and every hair on our head. All this would be
done without, during any of the motion, any change having occurred in
the positions of the parts of the body.
It is very curious that, in these transcendental speculations, the most
rigorous mathematical methods correspond to the most mystical ideas of
the Swedenborgian and other forms of religion. Right around us, but in
a direction which we cannot conceive any more than the inhabitants of
"flat-land" can conceive up and down, there may exist not merely
another universe, but any number of universes. All that physical
science can say against the supposition is that, even if a fourth
dimension exists, there is some law of all the matter with which we are
acquainted which prevents any of it from entering that dimension, so
that, in our natural condition, it must forever remain unknown to us.
Another possibility in space of four dimensions would be that of
turning a hollow sphere, an india-rubber ball, for example, inside out
by simple bending without tearing it. To show the motion in our space
to which this is analogous, let us take a thin, round sheet of
india-rubber, and cut out all the central part, leaving only a narrow
ring round the border. Suppose the outer edge of this ring fastened
down on a table, while we take hold of the inner edge and stretch it
upward and outward over the outer edge until we flatten the whole ring
on the table, upside down, with the inner edge now the outer one. This
motion would be as inconceivable in "flat-land" as turning the ball
inside out is to us.
XI
THE ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account