Flatland A Romance Of Many Dimensions Summary
Flatland Book Review
The main character in Edwin Abbott Abbott’s satirical novella, “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions ” is a two-dimensional creature, A Square, who visits one-dimensional Lineland and three-dimensional Spaceland. A Square tries to convince the king of Lineland of the existence of dimensions beyond the one he knows. A Square is helpless in imagining a three-dimensional world before he is pulled out of Flatland and experiences Spaceland. Although A Square is trying to explain to others of higher dimensional worlds, he himself has trouble understanding them.
After reading Flatland, I am convinced that higher dimensional worlds do exist; the intersection between four-dimensional world and our Spaceland is time.
Despite Abbotts’ description of …show more content…
Maybe because Abbott was trained as a writer and minister, I don’t think he has a really good understanding of math or physics. Abbott raises the topic of higher dimensions without offering deeper explanations or tools to explore the possibility of a multidimensional world. For this reason, the book lacks depth. Based on the relationship between algebraic exponentiation and geometry, 3^4 represents a cube in a four dimensional world. It has a length, width, height and fourth dimensional “extra height”(Dewdney 46). Although it’s difficult to visualize, it is geometrically possible. String theory envisions the basic units of matter as minuscule stretches of threadlike strings rather than point particles. As Dewdney said: “when we move through space, we are actually moving through higher dimensions, however, they 're so minutely small that we don 't notice them” (Dewdney 126). Although currently string theory could not be verified, it appears to offer some resolutions for exploration of higher dimensions. In one word, Abbott’s Flatland opens a door to higher dimensional
The main character in Edwin Abbott Abbott’s satirical novella, “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions ” is a two-dimensional creature, A Square, who visits one-dimensional Lineland and three-dimensional Spaceland. A Square tries to convince the king of Lineland of the existence of dimensions beyond the one he knows. A Square is helpless in imagining a three-dimensional world before he is pulled out of Flatland and experiences Spaceland. Although A Square is trying to explain to others of higher dimensional worlds, he himself has trouble understanding them.
After reading Flatland, I am convinced that higher dimensional worlds do exist; the intersection between four-dimensional world and our Spaceland is time.
Despite Abbotts’ description of …show more content…
Maybe because Abbott was trained as a writer and minister, I don’t think he has a really good understanding of math or physics. Abbott raises the topic of higher dimensions without offering deeper explanations or tools to explore the possibility of a multidimensional world. For this reason, the book lacks depth. Based on the relationship between algebraic exponentiation and geometry, 3^4 represents a cube in a four dimensional world. It has a length, width, height and fourth dimensional “extra height”(Dewdney 46). Although it’s difficult to visualize, it is geometrically possible. String theory envisions the basic units of matter as minuscule stretches of threadlike strings rather than point particles. As Dewdney said: “when we move through space, we are actually moving through higher dimensions, however, they 're so minutely small that we don 't notice them” (Dewdney 126). Although currently string theory could not be verified, it appears to offer some resolutions for exploration of higher dimensions. In one word, Abbott’s Flatland opens a door to higher dimensional