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Vegeta
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
238 Posts |
 Posted - 03/19/2007 : 08:34:38
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Mathemagicians have mapped the 248 dimensioned E8 structure, a member of the Lie group which describes symmetrical objects.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6466129.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E8_(mathematics)
Whooosh! that went mostly over my head, what I did get was that it is important to string theory, and may assist in unification theory.
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What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a pink shirt before?
"I was asked if I would do a similar sketch but focusing on the shortcomings of Islam rather than Christianity. I said, 'No, no I wouldn't. I may be an atheist but I'm not stupid.'" - Steward Lee |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 12:16:26 [Permalink]
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Just as soon as someone explains to me the nature of the fifth dimention, i'll be one step closer to finding out WTF this is supposed to mean.
Now if only our "specialists" would be more creative and come up with something so complicated that it cant be properly dissected by us, it would save us a lot of time. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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leoofno
Skeptic Friend
USA
346 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 12:25:49 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf
Just as soon as someone explains to me the nature of the fifth dimention, i'll be one step closer to finding out WTF this is supposed to mean.
Now if only our "specialists" would be more creative and come up with something so complicated that it cant be properly dissected by us, it would save us a lot of time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Dimension
Glad I could help. |
"If you're not terrified, you're not paying attention." Eric Alterman
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 16:13:53 [Permalink]
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quote:
Just as soon as someone explains to me the nature of the fifth dimention
Dimension does not typically mean things such as time and space in math. It has many meanings. In linear algebra, dimension means how many elements of a vector space take to represent it. One you may be familiar with is R^3, vectors of:
(x, y z) where x, y, and z are real numbers.
This has a basis of {(1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1)} which means that if I take any three real numbers a1, a2, a3:
a1*(1, 0, 0) + a2*(0, 1, 0) + a3*(0, 0, 1)
I can form any vector in R^3. Since there are 3 vectors in the basis, we call this dimension 3. Note how you can take x, y, and z to mean spacial coordinates, though you don't necessarily have to.
I know Lie groups have to do with manifolds, which in turn have to do with vector spaces, so I believe there is a connection between this dimension and the dimension of a Lie group, but I do not yet understand enough of topology to know what that connection is. |
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov |
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248-dimension maths puzzle solved
