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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott
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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

by Edwin A. Abbott

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English (48)  Swedish (1)  German (1)  Italian (1)  Portuguese (1)  All languages (52)
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Many people, when discussing complicated issues like religion or god, do not understand what it means to observe an entity that exists in a space that has one dimension more than themselves. Conversely, they often do not consider what it means to understand how they might be seen by an entity that exists in a space with one dimension less than their own. While these points are not surprising on their own -- beings in other dimensions are not obvious things! -- what is surprising is the lack of use of this information by those who advocate the existence of such beings (ie. God). I think Flatland provides fodder for many deists but is, unfortunately, neglected by the same. ( )
ieJasonW | Jul 9, 2009 |  
A two-dimensional being discovers the third dimension. ( )
TCbigload | Jun 24, 2009 |  
Imagine a world where things exist on a plane of two dimensions. There is no up and down at all. People this world with polygons whose social position is ruled by the number of sides they have (triangles are the plebs, circles are the priests) and the class structure is rigidly adhered to.Then imagine of young person in this world who is contacted by a three dimensional sphere and who offers to take her out of her plane world and show her how the universe really is! This is the concept behind Flatland.Part satire on the class structure of Victorian Britain, part teaching aid for teaching euclidian space, this is a classic book, aimed at children, but powerful and thought provoking enough for adults.Its a very slim volume, but the content and its ideas will sit with you for a very long time. ( )
fieldri1 | May 8, 2009 |  
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
"O day and night, but this is wondrous strange" [Hamlet]

"Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk!" [Titus Andronicus]
Dedication
To
The Inhabitants of SPACE IN GENERAL
And H. C. IN PARTICULAR
This Work is Dedicated
By a Humble Native of Flatland
In the Hope that
Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries
Of THREE Dimensions
Having been previously conversant
With ONLY TWO
So the Citizens of that Celestial Region
May aspire yet higher and higher
To the Secrets of FOUR FIVE OR EVEN SIX Dimensions
Thereby contributing
To the Enlargement of THE IMAGINATION
And the possible Development
Of that most rare and excellent Gift of MODESTY
Among the Superior Races
Of SOLID HUMANITY
First words
I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
The Annotated Flatland has substantial commentary by Ian Stewart and so is a separate work.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 048627263X, Paperback)

Unless you're a mathematician, the chances of you reading any novels about geometry are probably slender. But if you read only two in your life, these are the ones. Taken together, they form a couple of accessible and charming explanations of geometry and physics for the curious non-mathematician. Flatland, which is also available under separate cover, was published in 1880 and imagines a two-dimensional world inhabited by sentient geometric shapes who think their planar world is all there is. But one Flatlander, a Square, discovers the existence of a third dimension and the limits of his world's assumptions about reality and comes to understand the confusing problem of higher dimensions. The book is also quite a funny satire on society and class distinctions of Victorian England. The further mathematical fantasy, Sphereland, published 60 years later, revisits the world of Flatland in time to explore the mind-bending theories created by Albert Einstein, whose work so completely altered the scientific understanding of space, time, and matter. Among Einstein's many challenges to common sense were the ideas of curved space, an expanding universe and the fact that light does not travel in a straight line. Without use of the mathematical formulae that bar most non-scientists from an understanding of Einstein's theories, Sphereland gives lay readers ways to start comprehending these confusing but fundamental questions of our reality.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400)

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