If I want to measure the length of the 4th spatial dimension of a hypercube, is there a name for what I'm measuring? In other words, length, width, height, and ??? I've seen it called both depth and Q online, but those don't seem to be universal terms. And are there terms for the length of other, even higher dimensions?
Thanks
Dirk
That's a cool idea.
Now that I think back on it, the group's image may have come from a free images site. I did try an AI generator but can't remember which images came from where. Duh.
Yes and yes
It's called A Dark & Stormy Night. I was able to create that one myself. It's basically a scary tales group (Gothic, vampires, werewolves, demon-possessed rabid nuns, etc.) For most of the other groups listed above, we need to be moderators, so I'm waiting for Sol on that. The group's image is AI generated. I told it to give me a castle on a stormy night. I had to repeat it several times, but I finally got one I liked.
Another item: Sol, have you had a chance to look at the functioning of spellchecking on various important TNBW text fields? I no longer recall which ones had/didn't have spellchecking, but there definitely was more of it before the crash. I especially find myself looking up plenty of words when posting to the forum.
EDIT: Found the problem. My browser (Chrome) is able to spellcheck words in at least some TNBW text fields (e.g., forum posts) but the feature was off. Not sure how that happened. But that seems to be the fix.
EDIT 2: Did a little more testing. Chrome's spellchecking seems to work on ALL major TNBW text fields except the closing comment to an inline review and the closing comment when responding to that review.
Thanks
Dirk
Sol, when I get emails sent to me by TNBW, and I click on the link within (e.g., to go to a new message from another member), my security software (Bitdefender) intercepts my attempt to do so, and kicks up an error message like the following (edited for brevity):
https://email2.booksie.com/ls/click?upn=u6w90slL...etc.
Your connection to this web page is not safe due to an unmatching security certificate.
This means that the certificate was issued for a different web address than the one it is being used for, and you run the risk of exposing your data by accessing this page.
I can force my way past it, although I never do so at any other site. I'd prefer not to have to do it here either since there's always a chance the site's been hacked.
Thanks
Dirk
Sol, could you please add me as a moderator of the following existing groups?
Historical Fiction
medieval fantasy/magic
thriller/mystery/suspense
YA/New Adult crossover
Brave – Community of Christian Writers
New Novelists
Also, please add the following members as moderators of the groups listed next to their names:
Bill - Romance
Lynn - Memoirs
Kdot - medieval fantasy/magic
Please do not remove any existing moderators.
Thanks
Dirk
I would hold off on removing Raymond's account for a few weeks yet. He's not selling anything. You could consider it an author's bio, and he has published, although not in fiction. I sent him a quickee, so we'll see.
This is just evolution! Survival of the fittest.
I pity whoever gets caught in this weather with a broken down car. Someone going from a heated garage at home to a heated garage at work, or the reverse, is likely to get very complacant, especially those young enough to reproduce. Which reminds me, I need to order a better blanket for the car. Or a winter-weight down comforter. 
-55C in Edmonton. Nice.
Btw Jupiter is sitting at -110 right now. You're half way there!
You know it's cold when Alexa switches to Kelvin. LoL
Avg Temp on Jupiter = 163K = -110C
Surface = 125K = -148C
Core = 24K-36K °K = ~24K-36K °C
Looks quite toasty inside Jupiter.
Supposedly, living in a warm climate (NY/NJ) thins the blood somewhat, but after 8 years back in Canada, I'm still waiting for it to thicken. :-)
One cool thing, though, a new medication I'm on makes me warm enough I can keep the thermostat down by 5+ degrees and be totally comfortable. Weird side effect.
Son of a... Winter hit Alberta with a vengeance. I guess mother nature is trying to make up in one day for the nice weather we had through late December. My Accord's heater couldn't keep up, so I was freezing in the car, even with thick gloves on, and only 1/3 of the windows were clear. I finally bit the bullet and ordered the warmest pair of gloves I could find (non-heated). It's frightening when you have pay almost as much for gloves as you do for a parka. I subsequently read a review froom a member of the Canadian Ski Patrol, who considers the Black Diamond Guide gloves to be perfect for what they do. There are even warmer, heated gloves, but they cost as much as my first used VW, so I'm not that desperate yet.
It can't be torpedoes because it needs to be a weapon that eventually overloads the Hercules's powertron and cripples key systems, including her weapons and her stardrive. Also, it needs to be so dangerous to the firing ship that the Imperium abandons them, otherwise they'd be in the next two battles, which I can't have. It also has to be something the Colonies learn how to protect themselves from as a result of the data returned by St. James (the Colonies deploy a solution on all Colonial ships shortly thereafter to better resist the weapon's effects, rendering it obsolete).
I have another possible approach that doesn't involve an explicit 4th dimension: the Imperials can shoot some form of energy that can travel through shields. That's what I had originally.
Since that's too much like magic, I added that the weapon fires through hyperspace, where there are no shields, and when it encounters the hull of the target ship, the fired energy drops out of hyperspace, having skipped over the 3D shields, and hits the hull in 3D space, where the hull actually exists. Of course, this requires handwavium as to why the energy traveling through hyperspace "knows" the 3D ship is there. One of the mysteries of energy, I guess.
Hmm. Great feedback. I didn't realize how confusing my descriptions were.
1. Yeah, I didn't copy over the description of the dish and it's location. My bad. If you're going to beam something into space, you should pretty much have some sort of external gizmo to actually do the beaming. Previously, it was massive guns. Now it's a big parabolic dish. Normally partially recessed into the forward hull, it extends forward/out when in use, so it can beam in pretty much any direction except backward. Not sure what you mean by streamlined.
2. I used "as you know" to provide information to the reader that St. James would know. If scientists discovered/proved that we are 4 dimensional beings, I would expect an admiral to know that. I'll see if I can write it without the as you know.
3. Not a portal. If I said you were a four dimensional being (but the 4th dimension is not visible to you), I would think you'd have to imagine something rather weird since humans don't think in 4D (eg look up tesseract for an example of such weirdness).
4. Ok
5. The blast doesn't appear inside the ship, nor does it skip the shields. Perhaps this is clearer: imagine (in 3D) that the back of your ship is unshielded and the enemy could hit you from behind. The back of your ship is simply one side (the 4th) of your three dimensional ship. By comparison, the ship's 4th dimension is similar to it having a "fifth" side. That fifth side has no shields, and the Imperium has figured out a way to see it and shoot at it. If you breach the ship's fifth side, it's just as deadly as if you had breached one of the other sides of the ship. Since it's the 4th dimension of the ship, it must exist in hyperspace (anything greater than 3 dimensions is hyper, by definition).
Looks like the new approach may be too complicated to explain easily/quickly. Not good.
Thanks, George.
This is rather long, but it eliminates the need for bigger guns, which Star Wars has done to death:
“Based on its energy signature, other characteristics, and my knowledge of relevant research, I believe the dish’s purpose is to create an opening into hyperspace. I’ll know more if they actually try to do so.”
“And the reason for such an opening?”
“As you know, all matter in the universe, including our ships, has a fourth spatial dimension. It exists in hyperspace, about which we know very little. Therefore, our shields were never designed to work there, leaving our ships’ fourth dimension unprotected.”
St. James’s eyes widened. She looked at the captain and the colonel. “If they can enter hyperspace, our entire fleet would be wide open to them!”
“Unlikely. The energy required to create an opening between dimensions large enough for a warship can be calculated based on well-established theorems and is far beyond the output of even the largest powertrons.”
Spirits said, “For now.”
St. James asked, “What would happen if they fire conventional weapons — supernova beams or missiles — into hyperspace?”
“Unknown.”
“Speculate.”
“It is unlikely they would have deployed an emitter on the Hercules unless they believed they could fire into hyperspace with some degree of accuracy, effectiveness, and safety.
“So, all they really need is a hole big enough to shoot through.”
“Correct.”
“How long will the hole remain open?”
“3.1415 seconds — the value of π.”
“Do they have enough power to create a five-meter-wide opening each time they want to fire?”
“Barely. They’ll need to exceed their powertron’s safety limits to dangerous levels. She’s already begun to divert power from other systems.”
St. James turned to Spirits. “Captain, evacuate all areas within the ship close to our hull, and reroute the extra power to our critical shields. Have our other ships do the same.”
Aussie said, “Shields will be useless against it, Admiral.”
“The HKs are still out there. And if that dish is not what you think it is, I don’t intend to get caught with my britches down.”
The Warming/the Albuma winds is now the Basting, a contemptuous term intended to convey the notion that the Earth is cooking people in their own juices (sweat). Requires virtually no explanation, unlike the Albuma winds, whose explanation was too long/tangential.
if you know electronics it's like confusing a steam engine with a diesel engine, or an oil filter with an air filter.
Potayto. Potahto.
njc, I reread the article more carefully and now I'm not sure what they actually accomplished. Did they simply observe the quantum Hall effect in lower dimensions? The wording in the article is just vague enough and technical enough to be confusing in places (to me in the middle of the night, lol). In hindsight, if they had actually seen something real, it would be all over the news.
Here's the link:
https://bigthink.com/technology-innovat … hysicists/
Slight tweak. I've gone back to hyperspace as the name of my story's extra dimension(s). I'm going to be intentionally vague since I don't want to suggest that my extra dimension is in any way related to the 4th spacial dimension of string theory, where the math says the extra dimensions must all be the itsy bitsy curled up ones. If I call mine hyperspace, then it falls into that classic sci-fi category known as "made up crap". The beauty of space opera.
Interestingly, I came across an article where scientists were able to test indirectly for the existence of a fourth spacial dimension, and two different teams using different tests found evidence that suggests it actually exists. It's not conclusive proof, but a cool result nevertheless.
I'm going to spend a little more on it. I'm almost done revising the first act, including an upcoming battle at the end of this act that causes Apollo to act. Although later battles don't use the 4D cannons (too dangerous), they use similar tactical maneuvers, which are affected by the first battle. Besides, I have most of it in my head. If I stop now, I'll forget the details (shocking, I know), and have to rediscover everything later.
I punted hyperspace as a term hours ago. I also ignored the fact that the fourth dimension is often considered to be time. I'll just have to be explicit. To simplify the writeup, I've said that all matter in our normal universe has 4 "physical" dimensions, of which we can normally only experience 3. Also, rather than 4D cannons, I've decided to give the Hercules a huge emitter on the hull, which she can use to open a hole into the 4th dimension of space, through which she can then fire a full barrage of supernova blasts at the unshielded portion of the Colonial ships. Where the extraordinary need for power will come into play is in opening the hole.
Just thought of another plot hole, though. If the Hercules wants to dump huge amounts of power into the emitter, all she has to do is install another powertron just for that (admittedly they're huge and they eat atreidite for breakfast). Then there would be no risk of overloading the existing powertron. Crap like this has been happening to me all day. Fix one thing, break another. I'm going to bed. I'll try to figure it out tomorrow.
[Censored!]
I called it 4D space, short for the fourth dimension (another "physical" dimension, not time). No reference to hyperspace at all. All matter in the universe exists in all four dimensions, including us. You blow something up in one dimension, there's a good chance you'll destroy it across all four dimensions.
I keep running into problems though. Every time I think I've accounted for all obvious plot holes, and I write it up, I find new plot holes.
One definition of hyperspace I read usually involves extra dimensions where the laws of physics are different than in our dimensions, allowing ships to go faster than light. It's a concept invented by an SF author in the early 1900s and used by many others, including Asimov in his Foundation novels.
I'm considering calling mine extraspace, but it probably fits the definition of hyperspace too. Specifically, all objects that exist in spacetime also exist in my version of hyperspace, which is merely a fourth "physical" dimension of those objects. If you hit an enemy ship's fourth dimension with an energy beam fired into hyperspace, that foreign energy is expelled from hyperspace at the point of collision between the energy beam and the ship's fourth dimension.
I don't actually mention hyperspace when it comes to the operation of my stardrives. I simply call it teleportation and leave the "how" to the reader's imagination. But I do refer to hyperspace (or extraspace) for how the hypercannons work. The firing ship doesn't itself enter hyperspace, but the cannons are able to fire into it, resulting in an energy beam that bypasses the target ship's shields (which only exist in the first three dimensions) and strikes the hull of the ship.
Dune had a book dedicated to the period/characters who invented their drive mechanism. They went into some details, but I don't recall how much.
