2D, 3D and 4D Man

[imported_luckyme]

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The sphere is no more barrier to him than the circle was to 3D man. To 3D man this is a miracle.

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The analogy doesn't play out in reality. Stop a bunch of our 4 diminsional college grads and quiz them on some 2D geometry fundamentals or 3D situations and you'll find they rarely have a clue about the principles at work in the lower dimensions. In that sense they would seem god-like in that they do bungle a lot of simple stuff.

[Siegmund]

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(we are ignoring the fact that 2D man would fall in half because his digestive tract splits him in two).


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In fact, this engineering problem and many others like it have been overcome: see Dewdney's "The Planiverse" for one solution.

[UncleSalty]

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There are infinite dimensions!

If I take a trillion integrals over a line, I'm going to get a number, right?

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Of course. And that number would be...42.

[Trantor]

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Would like others thoughts on this.

2Dimensional man comes accross a circle with a dot inside it. He cant get to the dot because it is impossible for him to get past the circle (we are ignoring the fact that 2D man would fall in half because his digestive tract splits him in two).

3D man comes along, sees a dot inside a circle and just reaches overtop the circle and touches/grabs the dot. To 2D man, this is a miracle.

Now where it gets interesting...

3D man comes accross a ball surrounded by a sphere. He cannot touch/grab the ball since it is impossible for him to get past the sphere.

Along comes 4D man. He sees the ball inside the sphere and takes it. The sphere is no more barrier to him than the circle was to 3D man. To 3D man this is a miracle.

Now 4D man comes accross a sphere surronded by the 4D equivilent of a dot/circle/sphere. To him he cant touch/grab the sphere. But 5D man can easily take the sphere, there is no barrier for him. To 4D man this is a miracle.

Soooo...Is god 4D man?

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A higher dimensional being cannot enter into the lower dimensional world as that is contrary to the conservation of mass.

I wonder, it is said we only use 10% of our brain capacity...if we could somehow trigger an ability to use all 100% firing on every piston, how many dimensions could we understand?

[Brom]

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I wonder, it is said we only use 10% of our brain capacity

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This is a myth. The 10% number refers to approximately how much brain power is used when we are not actively thinking about anything (usually while we sleep). It is the amount of power the brain uses to run the auto-systems of our bodies. Even this number is off though; More recent study techniques have enabled us to look deeper into the brain than earlier methods, and have shown that the number is actually closer to 20% for most people.


Most of the population can use 98%+ when figuring out complex problems involving thinking and reasoning. There are some people who are usually labeled as mentally retarded who can not enable the use of some good portions of their brains, and instead use around 60%-75%.

[imported_luckyme]

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Most of the population can use 98%+ when figuring out complex problems involving thinking and reasoning. There are some people who are usually labeled as mentally retarded who can not enable the use of some good portions of their brains, and instead use around 60%-75%.

[/ QUOTE ] Did the study indicate which internet forums the latter group tends to post on?