X-Message-Number: 19172 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: language corruption Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 12:01:36 +0100 Even the word "dimension" has several meanings Mass, Length and Time are considered "fundamental dimensions" with which all other "dimensions" can be defined. "Dimensions" in this context are units of measure such as frequency, power, voltage, work, energy etc. Once such units were given understandable names such as "cycles per second" - but in the 60s it was decided to honour famous people by giving their names to units, so for example now we have Hz, which is, of course, quite meaningless whereas c/s gives an immediate insight. Co-ordinate systems giving direction and position are also referred to as "dimensions", but they are completely different. The human brain seems to be able to perceive only three directions, up-down, left-right and forwards-backwards. It is also dragged along what is sometimes called the fourth, time. To cope with quantum theory and so on, additional directions are sometimes added when theories are being formulated. Computers, of course, are capable of handling co-ordinate systems with large numbers of directions limited only by the memory handling capacity of the compiler or interpreter of the programming language used (the machine memory size is often larger than this these days). -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://www.deRivaz.com : http://www.AlecHarleyReeves.com http://www.longevity-report.com : http://www.autopsychoice.com : http://www.cryonics-europe.org http://www.porthtowan.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19172