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From: Kevin Kreamer <kreamer@centraltx.net>
Subject: Re: HyperCube (Diamond Explained)
Date: 1997/06/15
Message-ID: <33A4AA07.467F3848@centraltx.net>#1/1
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Sleeper wrote:
> 
> Rumor has it that on Fri, 13 Jun 1997 21:59:50 -0500, Kevin Kreamer
> <kreamer@centraltx.net> wrote:
>
> %     A cube in our world is a hypercube only if its length along the 4-D
> % is equal to the lengths along the other 3 dimensions.  Otherwise, its a
> % hyper-rectangle.  Time is the "official" fourth dimension, according to
> % Einstein and physicists following him.  Einstein saw the universe as a
> % complete 4-D continuum, where you can "turn" it, and the fourth
> % dimension will take the place of another one of the dimensions -- kinda
> % like if you turn a regular cube, the width becomes the length or the
> % height depending on which way you turn it.  We can then represent a
> % hypercube after we come up with a way to reconcile the time/length
> % difference -- come up with a way to convert between meters and minutes,
> % for instance.
> 
> The answer is...42!
> 
> Sorry, sorry, sometimes I just can't help myself.  Trying to imagine a line 6
> hours long blew my mind.
> 
> Does this mean that a hypercube could only exist for X secs before colapsing
> into a "regular" cube?
> Where X secs = 2 metres.
> 

I don't think it would collapse into a regular cube, because time would
continue to flow, and so in that case it would end up as a
hyperrectangle.  For it to be a hypercube, the shape must become a cube
at a given time and then stop being a cube X seconds later, because we
can not stop time. (if we could stop time, it would be easy -- make a
cube at a given time, then stop time X seconds later -- voila,
hypercube!) You could break the cube in half after X seconds, and then
you'd have a hypercube 2m*2m*2m*Xsec, that just finished being a
hypercube (viewing the cube from a 4-D perspective). The drawings that
were posted were attempts (many of them very good attempts) to represent
two-dimensionally a fourth-dimensional view of a cube lasting for X
seconds, if I understand the concept correctly. <now I shake my head to
clear the clutter :) >

> Or are all hypercubes really hyperRectangles until the end of time?
> <shakes head vigorously to clear the clutter>
>

All quarks are really hyperwhatevers (because they won't always
necessarily retain a cube shape throughout the course of time), until we
can divide a quark.  Then all whatever's-the-smallest-part-of-matter
becomes hyperwhatevers until the end of time (or until we can break it
down further).  I hope I helped clear it up <g>

> I'm getting a headache, I think I'll go read some nice, simple cultural
> anthropology or something.
> 
> Sleeper
> 
> "It tasted better when I thought it was deer meat."
>           -over heard at a soup kitchen serving tofu chilie.

Maybe rocket science will be easier ;)

BTW, to pull this thread at least a little back towards the topic of
ascii-art, here's what we all wish would fall out of a hypercube if we
ever found one (MONEY !!!):

             
              |       |    |  |  |
              |   |   |    |     |        |     |    |
              |   |   |     .:::.         |     |    |
              |   |   |    ::'::::        |          |
              |       |    :.:::':  |     ____________
               .-'''-.  KCK::::.::  |   .'          .' 
              :       :     ':::'   | .'          .'
              :       :  |          | :          :
              ;KCK    ;  |       |    :          :
               '-...-'   |     ______ :          : 
                      |  |    :KCK  .'          .'
                   |  |  |    :   .'          .'
                               '.'__________.'        
                    .'''.            
                   :     :               
                   :     :               
                   :KCK  :               
                    '...'

--
.--.            
|~~| .-------.  Kevin Kreamer
|~~| |.-----.|  <kreamer@centraltx.net>
|--| || KCK ||  "A feature is a bug with seniority."
|  | |'-----'|   
|__|~'-------'