Exploring other dimensions - Alex Rosenthal and George Zaidan
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Imagine a two-dimensional world -- you, your friends, everything is 2D. In his 1884 novella, Edwin Abbott invented this world and called it Flatland. Alex Rosenthal and George Zaidan take the premise of Flatland one dimension further, imploring us to consider how we would see dimensions different from our own and why the exploration just may be worth it.
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Meet The Creators
- Educator Alex Rosenthal, George Zaidan
- Animator Cale Oglesby
- Sound Designer Chris Acker
- Composer David Housden
- Narrator George Zaidan
by TED-Ed
Explain why the real Flatland could not actually have gridlines. What would happen if it did?
In the video, we depicted Flatland as having very faint gridlines like those you would see on a sheet of graph paper (notice that our characters pass over the gridlines in their travels through Flatland).
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Gavin Kelly
Lesson completed
you couldn't see through them
John Myers
Lesson completed
I think that the characters of flatland would be trapped within the lines.
raahim memon
Lesson completed
Since it is a two dimensional space any line that is drawn on it would obstruct the characters view, because they can't look over or below the lines but only directly at it.
Eric Johnson
Lesson completed
Wouldn't the grid lines be like little fences that the shapes could not pass through?
Charlotte Lamm
Lesson in progress
Well, we don't have gridlines in our world, would we?
Plus, if we had grid lines, there'd have to be an origin, and where would that be?
My point is, there is no center of the universe.
Michael Butcher
Lesson in progress
I think the fact the Flat-landers are moving over the grid lines suggests that they are in a sense the fabric of their reality. It would be impossible for them to see as it is the plane of existence they live on. We cannot see the curvature of space by gravity much in the same way the Flat-landers cannot see the curvature of their plane for example a piece of paper over the surface underneath.
Romel Dartedar
Lesson in progress
The characters would be incapable of seeing anything outside of its respective grid line. Since it is a two dimensional space any line that is drawn on it would obstruct the characters view, because they can't look over or below the lines but only directly at it. Unless the lines were so faint that they were somewhat transparent, because then they might act like some sort of shade altering the brightness of other characters making them seem farther away then they truly are.
