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Re: M Physics 21: How many 'effective' Dimensions (eD) are sufficient to wrap the Cosmos? 'new & fresh!'Posted by rtharbaugh on March 10, 2003 at 09:16:39: In Reply to: M Physics 21: How many 'effective' Dimensions (eD) are sufficient to wrap the Cosmos? 'new & fresh!' posted by kx21 on March 10, 2003 at 02:20:58: kx21 et al The number of possible dimensions does not seem to have a limit, as John pointed out, when considering real life choices like finding a girlfriend. (I would suggest anyone looking for a mate abandon this track immediately. You would be much better off following your nose than trying to sort friends by dimensional analysis. Proof: the rarity in the population of good mathematicians!) Most of these dimensions are really combinations of more basic dimensions. For example, a person's body structure is made up of many measures of length and mass, often compared to each other in terms of proportionality, density, strength, etc. One might consider overall density a dimension, and compare people based on some calculation of body fat. But density is a measure of mass per unit volume, and overall density has many variable conditions. One person may have heavier bone structure, another may have more muscle mass. One could wrap all the measures together in one big dimension called desirability, which is probably what we really do when looking for companionship. But obveously there is a lot of variation in how to judge desirability. However, we may be able to identify some basic dimensions which combine to make other dimensions, and this would simplify things somewhat. So we have length squared equals area, and length cubed equals volume, and mass per unit volume equals density. So we can talk about density, but we need to remember that it is actually a combination of more basic unit dimensions. When we try to identify the basic units, we usually come up with a scheme involving length, time, mass, and energy. Things start to get pretty slippery about here. Length and time are related by velocity, and mass and energy are related by the square of velocity. So length-time and mass-energy are both related to velocity. But velocity is just length/time, so maybe all we really need is a basic unit of space and a basic unit of time. Two dimensions. What could be simpler than that? Well we could say space and time are the same thing, in which case we have only one dimension, space-time. And we can observe that velocity has to be relitive, that is, one thing can only be said to be moving in relation to some other thing. One thing all by itself cannot be said to have any velocity at all! So it appears we have come down to the center of everything, the empty/full space at the beginning and the ending of all chains of reason. It is. Snore. Yawn. It is not. How boring! Someday, when we get tired of all this fussy playing around, we will come back to this place and dive into the ultimate navel. Meanwhile, there is me, and there is you. "I am" and "you are" seem to be the most basic dimensions of all. Without them we have nothing to talk about. "I am" is the direction "in", you are is the direction "out". Hence we have the notion of space. How far in do I go, how far out are you? Since we observe our universe to be expanding, can we say that the past is in and the future is out? Then "you are" is my future, and "I am" is my past. But don't get too excited, because we both can say this equally, and the corrollaries conflict. Unless one of us can say the future is in and the past is out, we will have to disagree on everything that lies between us. But that is ok. Out of this conflict comes everything we know and love. Unless of course you are tired of all the fuss and foolery and truly wish to get off the reincarnation cycle. Then the answer is right here in front of us: quit splitting the yin-yang and find the still center of all things. It is easy. It is neither within nor without. It is everywhere and no where. The calm still center of all the universe is the hole at the center of being. Return to the origin, where time and space are one, and dissappear. Personally I am happy to be playing this game for a while and I am glad you have chosen to play it with me. Lets have some fun. Thanks for being here. Really. Richard
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