..Not in the least bit Pynchonic -- space

[Ian Livingston]

I think someone's off their meds.


On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 7:45 PM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> A nicely incoherent response seems appropriate.
>
> On Feb 5, 2012 10:44 PM, "Keith Davis" <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Wahunhsplaading??
>>
>> On Feb 5, 2012 10:43 PM, "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Splaa?
>>>
>>> On Sunday, February 5, 2012, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > Whaa?
>>> >
>>> > On Friday, February 3, 2012, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>>> >> I once tried to explain to a physics professor trying to "help" us
>>> >> imagine extra dimensions that his( in my mind demeaningly cute and
>>> >> time-wasting) use of a transition from 2 D space to 3D space was not helpful
>>> >> to me because the concept of 2D space was  more of a journey away from
>>> >> reality/experience/known perceptual frameworks than the concept of a 5
>>> >> dimensional matrix.   Does anyone else find this schematic of explanation
>>> >> tiresome and ridiculous. First, it isn't as though the universe started as
>>> >> an expansion of Euclidean geometry,  second, it all presupposes motionless
>>> >> points in motionless space  and generally imaginary things that don't act
>>> >> like real things, and 3rd it's all very chicken and eggy: what is the
>>> >> meaning of a point or singularity or one dimensionality without a larger
>>> >> dimensional conceptual framework?
>>> >> On Feb 1, 2012, at 11:09 AM, Michael Bailey wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >>> what I would like to do is a nice natural-language exposition bu?.
>>> >>> frankly I'm not up to it.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> There was a fellow named Monty who used to show up here once in
>>> >>> awhile
>>> >>> who surely could, and I bet Dave Monroe could if he wanted to.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I can tell you what your question makes me think:
>>> >>> a) projective geometry (which figures in Pynchon, of course, with the
>>> >>> eigenvalues) - when you look at a diagram of 3-dimensional space the
>>> >>> diagram is flat, but if it's cunningly wrought it gives a sense of
>>> >>> depth.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> b) when you look at a diagram of the bowling balls on the plastic
>>> >>> sheets representing gravitation, that artist has abandoned the quest
>>> >>> for that particular illusion in favor of showing an illusion of the
>>> >>> gravitational effect on a space which is represented as a plane
>>> >>> although it really has at least one more dimension than that!
>>> >>>
>>> >>> c) and of course the diagram is limited in size whereas space itself,
>>> >>> as Douglas Adams said, is actually really really big
>>> >>>
>>> >>> d) the other part of your question, about the orbits and all, is
>>> >>> something I too wish I had a feel for.  I think it would be a matter
>>> >>> of doing the chapter questions in a good astronomy text and
>>> >>> preferably
>>> >>> also talking extensively (and by talking, I mean listening)
>>> >>> w/somebody
>>> >>> who knows it really well...
>>> >>> like, right now, I have a pretty good feel for where I am in local
>>> >>> space, but almost none for my position and velocity in a larger
>>> >>> cosmic
>>> >>> framework...
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Bled Welder wrote:
>>> >>>> I suppose I could go onto a science-l whatever, but that sounds like
>>> >>>> a
>>> >>>> hassle and you people seem to might be able to answer this question
>>> >>>> that
>>> >>>> bugs me: okay getting beyond the thing that Einstein was wrong,
>>> >>>> it'll be
>>> >>>> happening any day now, what is space?
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> More specifickly, whenever I see examples of it, space is on a flat
>>> >>>> plane,
>>> >>>> then objects do their little push into the "fabric" of it --and
>>> >>>> case!
>>> >>>> everything is on the same frikkin plane.
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> Is everything on the same frikkin plane, indenting?  I don't even
>>> >>>> know if
>>> >>>> the Moon circles on the same plane as Earth does the sun.  Are all
>>> >>>> planets
>>> >>>> in the same orbital format?  You know what I mean here?      b
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>
>>> >>



-- 
"Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant