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Originally Posted by monir
Thread is now open for business. Keroko has our thanks for coming up with the thread title!  |
Thanks to all the mods that made this tread.
It feels much better to have a discussion without thinking you might be going to off topic. And i like how you opened it up to include all abilities in general.
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Originally Posted by babohtea
Everyone should be aware that; if you go deep enough, applying scientific theory to super powers is exactly as stupid as it seems
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haha, my thoughts exactly. But its fun to speculate and i enjoy have physics discussions where i get to practice using my (practical?) knowledge. I think that there is a trend is most modern media, towards really complex and interesting stories which engage the fans and cause tons of discussion (LOST being a good example). Although Railgun might not be that kind of show, it still is technical enough to have fun speculating with.
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Originally Posted by babohtea
Dimensions are dimensions, regardless of what "axis" you choose, right? We like to envision the axii of the second dimension being at a perfect right angle, but it really isn't like that, right? In actuality, the perfect grid's we envision the dimensions to be in are actually just that way for convenient reference, right?
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Right and wrong. Dimension are basically directions through a space independent from each other. That means an object can be traveling through nth dimensions with nth independent magnitudes in its vector. Also note that "n" doesn't necessarily need to be a whole number (fractal universes would be examples of in-between dimensions). You are also right in stating that dimensions don't need to be right angles of each other, but not because of what your thinking. The 90 degree rule only applies to euclidean spaces, but our universe is hyperbolic. Matter effects the shape of the universe, bending and stretching it, so it's possible that an infinite amount of planes can exist that are parallel to a single plane, but all intersect the same point. This means that angles won't add up to what we expect them to. Most Physicists don't actually view the universe as a perfect grid, you can blame the media for that. Although we do use geometry its much more abstract.
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Originally Posted by babohtea
Anyhow, how do we know the order of dimensions again? How do we even know there's an order to them? Is it really the "third dimension, the fourth dimension", or is it just an object with 3 dimensions? What I'm saying is, how are all of the theoretical thinkers determining the order of the dimensions?
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Think about it this way. Ignoring time(i've tried to explain time in my previous posts), is there and way to distinguish between the 3 dimensions you are familiar with? Also, does there have to be rigidity to the dimensions: isn't your 'up' different from another person on the earth? Remember dimension are only conceptual. They don't exist; they are like the borders on a map. There is no order to the dimensions. We talk about 4th or 5th dimensions rather when describing "things" (such as space, or particles, or structures) which exist in directions we cannot imagine. You cannot 'skip' dimensions, as most of the time dimensions are defined to allow the least complexity when doing the math.
It might seem like we are adding dimensions in an order when we start talking about higher and higher dimensions, but it helps to imagine lower dimensions first. Take a plane like a sheet of paper. Everything drawn on that sheet exists virtually in only 2 dimensions (avoided saying '2nd'). When you bend and fold that sheet through 3 dimensions, it doesn't effect what's happening on the 2 dimensional plane. In the same way, you should imagine our dimensions as being a plane in a 4th or 5th dimensional world: warping and twisting, without us noticing. Technically if higher dimensions exist, we have a higher dimensional space, it would just be that we are unaware of this.
Getting back to the anime side of things, i was wonder what Touma's ability could be? I'm guessing, since it effects both magic and ESP it has a source opposite regular abilities. I also never fully understood his ability in the first place; if he can't stop the physical outcome of an ability, why can he stop Misaka's railgun? doesn't the coin have a velocity independent of her power, once its neutralized? (or maybe hes just gotten lucky, and her go full power on him, vaporizing the coin.)