FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40  
41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   >>   >|  
t occur about the figure's _plane_ of symmetry, and in a higher--i.e., the _fourth_ dimension. Such a movement we can reason about with mathematical definiteness: we see the result in the right- and left-handed symmetry of solids, but we cannot picture the movement ourselves because it involves a space of which our senses fail to give any account. Now could it be shown that the two-dimensional symmetry observed in nature is the result of a three-dimensional movement, the right-and left-handed symmetry of solids would by analogy be the result of a _four_-dimensional movement. Such revolution (about a plane) would be easily achieved, natural and characteristic, in four space, just as the analogous movement (about a line) is easy, natural, and characteristic, in our space of three dimensions. OTHER ALLIED PHENOMENA In the mirror image of a solid we have a representation of what would result from a four-dimensional revolution, the surface of the mirror being the plane about which the movement takes place. If such a change of position were effected in the constituent parts of a body as a mirror image of it _represents_, the body would have undergone a revolution in the fourth dimension. Now two varieties of tartaric acid crystallize in forms bearing the relation to one another of object to mirror image. It would seem more reasonable to explain the existence of these two identical, but reversed, varieties of crystal, by assuming the revolution of a single variety in the fourth dimension, than by any other method. There are two forms of sugar found in honey, dextrose and levulose. They are similar in chemical constitution, but the one is the reverse of the other when examined by polarized light--that is, they rotate the plane of polarization of a ray of light in opposite ways. If their atoms are conceived to have the power of motion in the fourth dimension, it would be easy to understand why they differ. Certain snails present the same characteristics as these two forms of sugar. Some are coiled to the right and others to the left; and it is remarkable that, like dextrose and levulose, their juices are optically the reverse of each other when studied by polarized light. Revolution in the fourth dimension would also explain the change in a body from producing a right-handed, to producing a left-handed, polarization of light. ISOMERISM In chemistry the molecules of a compound are assumed to consist of the a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40  
41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

movement

 

fourth

 

dimension

 

result

 

revolution

 

dimensional

 
mirror
 

symmetry

 

handed

 

change


polarized
 

reverse

 

natural

 

characteristic

 

polarization

 

solids

 

varieties

 

producing

 
levulose
 

explain


dextrose

 
crystal
 

examined

 

identical

 

assuming

 
single
 

reversed

 
chemical
 

constitution

 

method


similar

 

variety

 

understand

 

optically

 

studied

 

juices

 

remarkable

 
Revolution
 

assumed

 

consist


compound
 
molecules
 

ISOMERISM

 
chemistry
 
coiled
 
conceived
 

opposite

 

motion

 

characteristics

 

present