the missing dimension

[sitifan]

What is the missing dimension that turns prayer requests into answers?


What does "the missing dimension" mean?

http://www.englishforums.com/English...st.htm#1343618

[Rover_KE]

You have your answer in the link you quoted.

I doubt anybody can usefully add to that.

Rover

[birdeen's call]

I'll try.

This stylistic addition, as CSnyder calls it, is not completely devoid of meaning. Imagine a man, Mr Flatts is his name, who can perceive only two of the three dimensions we, lucky ones, can see. His entire world is like a sheet of paper. A fly sits on this sheet of paper too. It gets bored however, and soon it flies away, but only to return a minute later and sit on the sheet of paper again, but in another place. Poor Mr Flatts thinks a miracle has happened. He couldn't perceive the fly between the moment it flew away and the moment it came back. He thinks the fly miraculously translocated, but it's not true. The fly just moved in the "missing" third dimension.

This is why additional dimensions are sometimes used as an explanation (usually jocular) of miraculous (often not seriously) events. For example, "My keys have disappeared. Checking all the dimensions of my purse may take a while." Or your example.

[konungursvia]

I'll try.

This stylistic addition, as CSnyder calls it, is not completely devoid of meaning. Imagine a man, Mr Flatts is his name, who can perceive only two of the three dimensions we, lucky ones, can see. His entire world is like a sheet of paper. A fly sits on this sheet of paper too. It gets bored however, and soon it flies away, but only to return a minute later and sit on the sheet of paper again, but in another place. Poor Mr Flatts thinks a miracle has happened. He couldn't perceive the fly between the moment it flew away and the moment it came back. He thinks the fly miraculously translocated, but it's not true. The fly just moved in the "missing" third dimension.

This is why additional dimensions are sometimes used as an explanation (usually jocular) of miraculous (often not seriously) events. For example, "My keys have disappeared. Checking all the dimensions of my purse may take a while." Or your example.

Agreed, but theoretical physicists take the notion quite seriously. I don't always take them very seriously.

[birdeen's call]

Agreed, but theoretical physicists take the notion quite seriously. I don't always take them very seriously.

Well, they have their reasons for that. The mathematical models are quite complcated, because of the experimental data they have obtained, which won't fit into simple theories like the Newtonian 3D world.

[konungursvia]

Well, they have their reasons for that. The mathematical models are quite complcated, because of the experimental data they have obtained, which won't fit into simple theories like the Newtonian 3D world.

True. When I was doing my chemistry degree we studied quantum mechanics (it really belongs to us more than those .... other people in .... physics) we learnt about anti-orbitals which actually depend on bizarre theory (square roots of i) and yet they explained smell itself. Yes, smell.

[Hedwig]

I'll probably regret having asked but, what's a square root of i? Does i stand for a number?

Hedwig
Comfy and cosy in her 3D world.

[konungursvia]

Yes, i is the square root of negative 1, an impossibility in classical mathematics, but a reality in chemistry.

Complex number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5jj]

I'll probably regret having asked but, what's a square root of i? Does i stand for a number?

The ignorance of some people astounds me. I knew the answer to that before I could walk, nay, before I was born, even.

Question Corner -- What is the Square Root of i?

If you have any problems with that, um, well, um - ask somebody else.

[birdeen's call]

I'll probably regret having asked but, what's a square root of i? Does i stand for a number?

Yes, i is a number, but it isn't a real number, but an imaginary number. There are two sqaure roots of i, which you can see here.

PS: 5jj was faster, but maybe you'll find my first two links useful.