Re: OT: 4D
| From: | Ivan Baines <kinetic_wab@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 23:28 |
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> Hyperspherical planets are curious things. For one, they can have two
> independent spins *simultaneously*. That is to say, one of the spins
> can speed up/slow down completely independently of the other.
*Can* do, yes, but surely they wouldn't unless acted upon by an enormous
force, much like in the 3D world! Unless there's some truly bizarre
consequence of an extra dimension on the laws of physics which hasn't
occurred to me. ;-)
Seriously though, I can understand this being possible, but... do you
have some method for visualising this, or have you just relied on
calculations and suchlike?
Fun. But difficult. It reminds me of this:
http://www.superliminal.com/cube/cube.htm
A Rubik's hypercube! While nobody could seriously be expected to solve
this, it is doable in small amounts - you can get the game to apply a
low number of random turns, and try to solve it from there. I found this
to be great practice for getting a feel for four-dimensional rotations.
> one turn would have your eyes moving off to the
> side one after another (as in the analogous 3D view), while the other
> would have them both move off at the same time.
Could you explain this further? Is it maybe something to do with
whether the plane of rotation is parellel or perpendicular to the
line drawn between your eyes?
> Also, your eyelids would have 2-dimensional edges, and frown "lines"
> on your brow would be planes, which give you whole new dimensions of
> facial expressions. Not to mention 3D lips, which allow for whole new
> ways of pouting... :-P
The potential for body language with the extra degree of freedom is
awesome in itself. It's since occurred to me that the rotation-while-
maintaining-eye-contact thing I mentioned would make an awesome 4D analog
of, say, shrugging, or rolling one's eyes...
Mind you, just imagining the possible body-plans for a 4D lifeform breaks
my brain!
IB.
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