From: Steele, Kirk A (SteeleKA@nafm.misawa.af.mil)
Date: Fri Jan 25 2002 - 23:47:55 MST
This farmer (In New Zealand) of sheep (what else!?) wanted to build a fence
around his flock. So, in fairness to his wallet (more likely
deference/abdication to his sheila) he commissioned an architect, an
engineer and a mathematician to determine the MINIMUM amount of fencing
needed to accomplish this task.
The architects responded.
"Easy, compute the mean grazing area of any sheep, multiply this times the
average of the historical size of your flocks, then lay out a square equal
to this area", smugly said the architect.
He thought he had pre empted all considerations of both the engineer && the
mathematician.
The engineer, knowing that the modulus of a circle is the least of any
geometric shape, and thinking he was "one upping" the architect, and
further, closing the door on the mathematician, loudly added, "Use a circle
instead of a square! You will use LESS fencing material to encompass the
same area!"
The mathematician smiled.
"Follow me", he simply stated.
Walking outside to the shed, the balded pate of a wiry, but none to frail
ubermensch pulled out one roll of fencing material. [Snipping] off but a 2
meter length of this material, he looked at the other three mensches. They
met his gaze with that quizzical head tilting consternation of a dog that is
confused.
"Errrrrrruh", said the architect in his best impersonation of "Tim-the tool
man-Taylor".
The mathemensch (sic) stepped inside of the section of fencing he had
[snipped], closed it around himself, and said, "Now, all I have to do is
define myself as being outside the fence."
Kirkasaurus Wrecks
Finding humour in mathemensch-struation the world over. ;]
[Hermit] It is not bad news at all. It preserves sanity and allows us to
build effective models. Try to imagine the nightmare of working with sets
with members not included in U! Outside of the Universe is meaningless, as
when you try to define outside it becomes inside! The Universe must contain
everything that can be defined, real and imaginary, including the idea of
other universii. I'm afraid that this is not something very easy to convey
with words, but I'll try to convey at least a glimpse of the idea.
[Hermit] Bear in mind that the Universe is defined by space-time, and that
in the absence of space-time, there is no Universe. There is no anything.
Not even the idea of inside or outside, never mind up or down. It is the
null set, "{}", in every possible way. Until something (gravity, radiation,
matter, force) arrives in a location to establish a reference frame, that
location is undefined - it must be, because outside of the boundaries of
the Universe which encompasses everything. It becomes even more interesting
when you consider that the Universe is expanding, but that that expansion is
effectively from itself into itself. Consider the well worn example of the
raisin loaf (discussed at length during the "Very Sebby Universe" threads).
The Universe is defined by what is in the bread, which is expanding
(including the raisins in it). What is "outside" the bread does not make any
sense within the scope of the Universe. So the entire Universe is expanding,
and some of the material within it is rushing outwards, and creating a
additional volume within the Universe as it defines additional regions of
space time. But there is nothing absorbed by the Universe in order to
expand, the space-time is created as it is required to contain the
matter-energy within the Universe just as the loaf of bread universe does
not "absorb" the oven to expand.
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