Tetronian Writing

[Apeironian]

This isn't for discussing orientational problems for tetronian writing, but, rather, designing an alphanumeric system. All I could think of for letters were 3 lines crossing at right angles, and a circle with a perpindicualar line through it's center.

For numerals, Imagine a wireframe cube with the opposite verticies connected. Each edge represents a binary digit. the segments connecting the vertexes are just to relieve ambiguity. If the digit is 1, the segment is filled in. If it's 0, it isn't. The digits spiral downwards in a clockwise direction. The connecter segments are always there.

This would allow you to reach Base-4,096.

Therefore, only the connectors would be 0, and the all edges and all the connecters would be 4,095.

[mbr88]

To Mr. Hayate: please delete my edited posts below. I see no point in exposing my arguments here if you, the admin itself, will just ignore them and pretend you're right. Yes, 4d beings have a very clear perception of up/down. Next time you decide to bash a newbie make sure you're right first.

[Keiji]

Ouch, I see you're using one symbol rotated for another...

I guess there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but tetronians have even worse problems with establishing text direction than we do - so it's better to stick to a set of symbols of which no two are similar (i.e. equal when discarding scale, rotation, mirroring and translation).

I'll think about this and post what I come up with, but I have to go now.

[papernuke]

Wouldnt their letters just be 3D figures?

When a 1D being looks at a letter, its a point (my my, what an alphabet), one dimension down from his. Same for 2D and 3D.

4D beings would also use alphanumeric symbols one dimension down from their own wouldn't they?.
Their computers or blocks of paper would somehow have the symbol "carved in", but as easily as we write our letters.
For example, if they wanted to write their 4D letter "A", then it might look like a 3D letter "A", but with four legs instead.
A one could be just a rectangular long block standing on its side.

[Keiji]

I don't really think that would be the case. They would certainly be embedded in 3D, but they would consist of lines or curves like our letters, not surfaces, for the same reason as we don't fill in our letters: they take too long to write.

[papernuke]

But then, couldnt they just make the figure hollow?

[Keiji]

To Mr. Hayate: please delete my edited posts below. I see no point in exposing my arguments here if you, the admin itself, will just ignore them and pretend you're right. Yes, 4d beings have a very clear perception of up/down. Next time you decide to bash a newbie make sure you're right first.

I didn't know what to reply with, so I didn't reply. No offense was intended. I honestly have no idea what you're even arguing about.

But then, couldnt they just make the figure hollow?

No, because they'd still have a 2D surface that they'd have to fill in. Their letters would need to be wireframe.

[Nick]

To Mr. Hayate: please delete my edited posts below. I see no point in exposing my arguments here if you, the admin itself, will just ignore them and pretend you're right. Yes, 4d beings have a very clear perception of up/down. Next time you decide to bash a newbie make sure you're right first.

Wow, he got really frustrated. I take it you did delete his posts, then? I can't see them anywhere.

[Keiji]

Yeah, I did. They only said "Edited", anyway, so there was no point keeping them.

[papernuke]

But then, couldnt they just make the figure hollow?

No, because they'd still have a 2D surface that they'd have to fill in. Their letters would need to be wireframe.

But dont we write in "1D"? Our pencils write in a dimension two under our own. Wouldnt the 4D beings be able to use their writing instruments and create a hollow 3D figure created with 2D surfaces?

[Keiji]

Sure they could if they had magic width-changing pens.

But in terms of being practical, any n-dimensional being would write 1-dimensional items in an (n-1)-dimensional space.

[Halfbaker]

Sure they could if they had magic width-changing pens.

How about the four dimensional equivalent of chisel-tip markers?

[Keiji]

Yes, a 4D being could draw out planar curves, but it would require filling them in, i.e. the time taken would be proportional to the area of the curve, not the perimeter.

[anderscolingustafson]

Perhaps one way a 4d being could fill in the curve in a reasonable amount of time would be if its hands were just able to move much faster and if it could move them at difference speeds depending on how much it had to write. Perhaps organisms living in higher demensions could adapt to the extra dimensions and extra space to cover if they could move faster.