hair clips

[screamS0clear]

i dunno if any of this is even right, but its just something i noticed, so correct me if im wrong. k, those hair clips, the ones that are triangular and curved and make that nice snapping sound when you bend them back and fourth... so if you look at it closesly, disregard the middle piece that seperates when the clip is open. so basically you have to pieces of metal connected at a base, and this is flat, and i think 2d? but when the pieces are pulled together and connected at a point that is too close to the base so that the angle the pieces need to bend in is too large, then the pieces bend upwards, and make the object three dimensional. im not sure if i messed that up anywhere, if i did tell me, but can two 3d objects somehow be pulled together that they will become 4 dimensional?

[RQ]

If they were bent into the 4th dimension, yeah, otherwise you just have a longer 3D object.

[Twix18]

im still fuzy on that whole forth demension thing...and i think you have it backwards, with the clip opened it is a 3D object, or more so and than closed...even saying that if it is closed than you will only have a 2 d boject... so you would never be able to hit the 4th demension at all.. youd be working it the wrong way.

[brasileiro]

I think I know where he's coming from with this one... closed, the clip is 2 dimensional (flat, with "no depth") and open, it would be 3 dimensional (with depth). Now, what if we were able to do that with 3 dimensional objects instead of the 2-d ones...? Is that what you are asking?

[jinydu]

Technically, "flat" and 2D do not mean the same thing. In reality, a sheet of paper is not really 2D; if you look closely, you'll see that it does have width.

[wendy]

One can replicate the effect of the hair-clip into four dimensions, but this does not explain how to open the thing.

If your hair-clip is in between two sheets of glass, then there is no room for it to open. It's only when you free the height-dimension that you give it room to open. Likewise, from three to four dimensions.

The thing about four dimensions is that there's none around to see. So you have to create your own, and do the mathematics etc. One of the more powerful methods is to use assorted "hyper-space" methods. I show at my website how to render three-dimensional space into 2D hyperspace. You basically take the idea and project it upwards: viz

3D = 3D or 2D + hyperspace
4D = 4D or 3D + hyperspace

The important thing to remember is that hyperspace is a process, not a result. The 3rd floor is upstairs from the 2nd, but downstairs from the 4th. Hyper means "over".

Look at http://www.geocities.com/os2fan2/gloss/index.html for the gory bits.

[brasileiro]

I know that "Flat" does not necessarily mean "2D"... I was just making it a little clearer. I see what he means though.