Dimensions

                A couple of weeks ago I posted a video my friend showed me that I’m sure none of you watched, so here it is again: http://pogpog.com/v/fourth-dimension-explained/.  This time I’m actually going to explain the concept so if you’re too lazy to watch Carl Segan explain the Fourth-Dimension I’ll so it for you.

                Imagine a world where everything is entirely flat. Not just flat but literally one-hundred percent flat. No height whatsoever. In this flat land of course everybody knows about left and right, but will never understand up and down because to them, it doesn’t exist. Obviously we know about up/down because we live in a three-dimensional world (Length, Width, and Height), but these flat people do not; they live in only two dimensions (Width and Length).

                Let’s pause here for a second. Many people do not want to believe that there is a fourth dimension because they don’t know “where would it be?!” Well the answer is simple: We can never know. Just as these flat people have no idea where up and down is, we could never know where a fourth dimension is. We are only familiar with up, down, left, right, forward, and backwards. We don’t know if there’s some other direction because we don’t exist in a world where that other direction is possible.

                Segan goes on to say what would happen if a three-dimensional object visited Flat-land. His example is an apple. So Mr. Apple floats above a certain square in Flat-Land and tries to speak to him. The square has no idea where the voice comes because there’s nobody in front of him, nobody to his left, nobody to his right, and nobody behind him. In fact, to him, the voice seems to be coming from inside of him.

                So let’s pause here again for an explanation to why the voice would seem to come from inside of him. Because the Apple is floating above Square, a direction that does not exist, his voice seems to come from whatever is below him on flatland. Square obviously cannot just hear a voice in another dimension and look up at it, because it’s not a direction his world allows him to look at.

                So Apple decides to come down and visit Flat-land. He finds that he’s able to move directly through it. And this makes sense because there will be no boundaries to his dimension in Flat-land. As he moves through Flat-land, all that will be visible to the flat people will be small cross-sections of him at a time; never will they be able to see the entire image of Apple at one time.

                Finally in frustration Apple picks up Square and drops him from up high in the air. As Square falls he thinks to himself “Wow! Never have I seen such! I can see everything from here! I must be somewhere never heard of!” Then with a loud thud he suddenly appears back in Flat-land. He doesn’t fall into Flat-land, just appears, because after all, they are entirely flat and unable to see anything above “flat”. So his friends all run up to greet him and ask him where he went. Square of course will say he went somewhere new and unheard of, possibly another dimension. His friends all ask him to show where it is, which of course Square is unable to do because in his world there is no up or down.

                This may be a little hard for some people to grasp, but for me it made sense and tells me that there is no way to completely rule out another dimension. Or, in fact, MANY dimensions. If I recall correctly, some scientists believe there are as many as 11 dimensions.

                This video proposes the Fourth Dimension is time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY_ZgAvXsuw, then goes on to explain up to the tenth dimension. Dimensions past three are something we will NEVER be able to fully grasp.

                Here’s a video that vaguely describes the basics of String Theory if you’re curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npgcupieoag&feature=related. So yes, I have been pillaging Youtube of its many videos to try and best explain myself.

                So let me bring up something else: a higher power.  I don’t feel like explaining my views, because I don’t want them to influence yours, but if we cannot grasp even a Fourth Dimension entirely, how can we say for sure there is no God? What if a being existed in, say, the eleventh dimension? To them, everything would exist as just a point in its world. It would be omnipresent, all powerful, and when it talked, it would seem like it talked out of things in our universe (i.e. a burning bush), just as when the apple talked it seemed to come from inside Square.  And if it decided to pick somebody up and shove them into its universe for a second, that someone would be able to see into the future, the past, and see anything about the world he wanted until he came crashing back into his dimension. He would of course have no way to explain his visions entirely, but he could write about what he saw in, say, a Bible.

                What are your thoughts? Or do you even care to try and wrap your puny three-dimensional brain around the eleventh dimension? It certainly makes it hurt.

4th Dimension

     I'm feeling extremly sick today, so there's no way I can rack my brain for an actually article. Here however is a video my friend Will showed me that I found very interesting:

http://pogpog.com/v/fourth-dimension-explained/

National ________ History Month

                I was actually going to write about the Jersey Devil this week, but after noticing a poster on my campus about “National Women’s History Month” it got me thinking. Where’s the National Men’s History Month?! Let me preface the rest by pointing out that I am not sexist, but I do feel these History months have gone completely out of hand. Most of us know about Hispanic History, Black History, and Women’s History months. Luckily I found a complete list here: http://diversity.uchc.edu/observances/index.html. Here’s basically what all the months are:

February

                -Black History Month

March

                -Women’s History Month

May

                -Asian/Pacific Heritage Month

                -Older Americans Month (Why don’t we hear anything about this one? Why are there no Disney channel specials for this?)

June

                -Gay and Lesbian Pride Month (‘Cause nothing says history like gay pride)

                -Caribbean American Heritage Month

September 15 - October 15

                -Hispanic Heritage Month

October

                -National Disability Employment Awareness Month

November

                -National American Indian Heritage Month

                And that’s pretty much it. Now let me go ahead and get this out of the way, I think having months dedicated to the history of certain people is a good thing. Awareness is a good thing. But being prejudiced about which ones to pay more attention to is a bad thing. We pushed the Native Americans farther and farther west, and then finally smooshed them into reservations. What do we give them in return? The month of November and next to ZERO coverage! Had anyone ever heard of National American Indian Heritage Month? I know I hadn’t.

                Now let me get back to my earlier question, why is there just a Women’s History Month and not a Men’s? First let’s look at why we have these history months. If I am not mistaken, we have months dedicated to certain peoples to raise awareness and give insight about people who are minority. Here in America, Blacks are a minority, Gays are a minority, Native Americans are a minority, Asians are a minority, Hispanics are a minority, Disabled people are a minority, but women are a Majority! In 2000, women outnumbered men by more than 5 million!

                Now here’s where you start saying that we need a history month for women because they are left out of history books. Here’s the facts: THEY ARE NOT LEFT OUT OF HISTORY BOOKS ANY MORE. I know more about Abigail Adams than I do George Washington! History books now give coverage of Women’s roles in history. From the Daughters of Liberty, to Deborah Sampson who posed as a man to enter the Revolution, women have played a large role in establishing this country and we know longer pretend like they didn’t! Now I’m not saying that there aren’t women in history who should be given more credit than they currently get: Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie, and Mary Todd Lincoln to name a few. But there are just as many men whose roles in history have been reduced to single sentences lost in the jumble of a textbook’s literature:  George Mason, Daniel Shays, John Jay (didn’t help the country, but still important), General Horatio Gates, the list goes on. So can somebody please tell me why we only have a Women’s History Month? Women are not a minority, they are no longer left out of history books, and they are no less recognized for what role they played in history than the men are.

                I can understand why there’s no White History month. Most of American is White. But why is there no, say, Poor People’s History Month? Why not one of those?! But no, seriously, I think we need to add in a Men’s History Month and give more recognition to the months that have been slipping under the radar. The entire point of these is to educate people and to help them understand people who are “different” right? So are we not being prejudiced by giving some groups more coverage than others? What do you guys think?

P.S. I'm posting early because I don't trust the scheduling system