Enquiring Minds

Is the universe finite? If so is it possible to find the center? Apparently not as it is uniform as far as the eye can see in all directions (giving us the illusion of being at the center). Could we then estimate what percent of the total universe is contained in the visable universe?

Ignoring time for the moment, could we imagine our three-dimensional world as the surface (brane) of a sphere in four dimensional space? i.e. If we could go far enough would we eventually return to where we started? In that case there would be no center, just as there is no center of the surface of a sphere.

What would the implications be of the universe not being finite?

My Favorite Blogger

The Reference Frame

http://motls.blogspot.com/

Why Don't They? Math Vision No. 2

I envision a dictionary of terms used in mathematics. It should be linked back until undefined terms are reached. Synonyms could be defined by reference to a single term. English should be the base with terms in other languages (esp. German and French) defined as synonyms. Common terms used in examples might be included (e.g. orange = object, oranges = objects, apples = objects).

Measurement terms would need careful treatment:

yard = 36 inches
yard = unit of distance
Would distance need to be an undefined term?

A seperate list should be made of undefined terms.

Why Don't They? Math Vision No. 1

I envision a complete [anyway extensive] non-redundant mathematical encyclopedia. Could search engines and AI help? What does Wolfram already have? Could the math part of Wikipedia provide a base? It should be extensively linked.

What is The Press?

A blogger questioned whether supreme court justices had the technical expertise to decide whether bloggers should have the same rights as Journalists. What rights are those? "Press" as used in the constitution doesn't have the meaning publishers. It is was short for printing press so freedom of the press is the right to print. It is a right of all people, not a special group. Compare freedom of speech. Professional speakers are called orators. Noone would claim that orators have rights that I don't have. Neither should professional printers have rights that I do not have. Together freedom of speech and of the press are freedom to communicate. One could ask whether a new form of communication (the internet) should be included.

Journalists try to expand their rights to the right to know (as agents of the public) and the right to conceal evidence of crimes justified as "protecting sources" in convulated service to this so-called right of the public to know.

I believe one or more states have passed a law to formalize this presumed right. These are not the same as constitutional rights.

Spotted in Borders

Peter Hedges's new Book, The Heights.  Peter is best known for writing What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Interesting Data

The center of the earth is heated to 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the surface of the sun. Where does all this energy come from? At least half and perhaps as much as 90 percent (no one knows for sure) comes from the breakdown of uranium and thorium atoms in the earth’s crust.  --from a site called The Infrastructuralist