Phil 105: Science and Philosophy - Fall 2004 Lectures
!You will be sorely disappointed if you think that these are a substitute
for attending class!
Topic Two. The Shape of Space
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Lecture 7 – Dimensions pp29-34
1. Assignments – postponed until Monday October 4th.
2. What would life be like in spaces of other than 3-Ds?
- Doesn't space manifestly have exactly 3 dimensions – up-down, left-right
and back-forwards? There's no 'ana' and 'kata'!
- Magic in 'Flatland' using the third (spatial) dimension
- Escapology – how can you escape from a 'closed' room?
- How can ghosts appear from nowhere?
- Rabits out of hats – how can you pull a rabit from an 'empty' hat?
- Reading sealed letters – how can you read a letter without opening
it?
- Magic in our space
- As in flatland – escaping, ghosts, rabits and sealed letters.
- Tying and untying knots in loops of string.
3. How might one fail to notice extra dimensions?
- Life in cylinder space: 2-D, 3-D and 4-D
- What do you see if you look in the cylindrical dimension?
- What happens if you throw a rock in the cylindrical direction?
- Move in the cylindrical dimension?
- Life in microscopic cylinder space: 2-D, 3-D and 4-D
- What if the cyindrical dimension is far too small to see?
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