Christougher Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 I had a random math thought today, and thought I'd share. Real Numbers can be plotted on a number line. Using that as the X axis and Imaginary numbers as the Y axis, you can plot Complex numbers on a plane. What happens when we take that a step farther? Inventing a Z axis allows us to create another new class of numbers, but what does it mean, what do we use it for? I decided to call it the Strange? axis, and make Strange? math that which was required to do calculations for warp fields, subspace and all things FTL. (Yes, the question mark is a required part of the name.) The higher the arc along the Strange? axis, the faster travel or shorter distance between two points. It's not intended to hold up to any real scrutiny, but it makes an acceptable psuedomath for my Master of Orion campaign. Figured it might be worth sharing. Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 we define i (imaginary 1) as the square root of -1. how will you define the other imaginary number? (hint - you can't use square root of -i as it has a solution already) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christougher Posted February 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 It's not intended to hold up to any real scrutiny, but it makes an acceptable psuedomath for my Master of Orion campaign. I can't do FTL math, but I'm sure whoever invents this field in-game can give you an acceptable answer. Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Apparently it's at right angles to both 1 and i. I know, real helpful, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christougher Posted February 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 One comment on it said it leaned towards Cthuloid... Hyperspace monsters, anyone? Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Along the lines of Cthulhoid monsters, it may be that mentally studying "higher math" brings the mind into psychic contact with other realities, gradually leading to madness due to their reality-warping properties. It might even allow some intelligent entities from those realities to communicate with or even possess humans in this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Apparently it's at right angles to both 1 and i. I know, real helpful, right? Didn't the Hitchikers guide to Galaxy said that they "would nuke the Pagalactic Aliens* for palying Ultra Cricket if somebody would figure out how to fire rockets in a right angle to reality"? *Appeared as mice on earth Re: OP How about three Dimensional Numbers? Normal numbers only have two Dimensions (the position in the Number system and the value). i.e. 142 has the 1 and the thrid palce (giving it a multiplier of 100 or 10^2), 4 at the second place (multiplier 10 or 10^1) and 2 at the first place* (multiplier of 1 or 10^0). Now all our current numbers have a Z axis value of 0 (wich means times or dvided by 1). *Relative to the decimal point. Positive (left of the Decimal Point) have a multiplier of 10^(Place Number-1). Negative have a value of 1/10^(Place Number without sign). In the Decimal System. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 The strange? axis is the square root of strawberry. "But strawberry isn't a number!" You think so? Well, that's why you don't have FTL. (IRL you can create number spaces with as many axes as you want, and the math is perfectly well understood. Clearly, strange? numbers involve something a bit more esoteric. But "a third axis" is the best one can do to explain them to non-mathematicians.) Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Along the lines of Cthulhoid monsters, it may be that mentally studying "higher math" brings the mind into psychic contact with other realities, gradually leading to madness due to their reality-warping properties. It might even allow some intelligent entities from those realities to communicate with or even possess humans in this one. This is vaguely similar to how it works in Charles Stross' Laundry Files series. Or maybe that's exactly how it works, but saying so too loudly will get you hauled off..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 In my star hero campaign setting, it was the advent of instantaneous Fold Drives that destabilized space-time and allowed the Cthuloid entities access into known space (or so the federal government thinks) Hyperdrives allow a vessel to pass through a weakpoint in the gravitational coefficient of the universe and enter hyperspace (the place between the quantum "membranes" that separate universes) within which neither Einsteinian nor Newtonian physics applies, so extremely fas ftl is possible, but one can only enter back through anothet weak point or "jump point" (secret black ops military vessels can create their own jump point and enter or leave hperspace wherever they want, but this is causing issues) There are several "jump gates" that have been discovered which were built by an unkown ancient race that still works. it is theorized that these jump gates use space fold technology to permanently link two distant weak points to allow instantaneous travel between them. Studying the jump gates led to the development of space fold drives that allows a vessel to create a weak point in space, and link it with any other point in space and implement instantaneous travel between distant points. Both drives require new math to implement them. hyperspace navigation requires a hefty knowledge of entropic math born of chaos theory to account for the non-stable spacial location traits of hyperspace. Neither time nor distance is constant in hyperspace (one of the reasons ftl travel is feasible there) and it requires a computer capable of trillions of calculations per second to successfully predict the seemingly random factors involved in hyperspace travel to determine the time and location of the jump back to normal space. Fold drives require two layers of navigational coordinates to be plotted simultaneously, then the "zero axis" determined, which calculates the most direct point through the quantum membrane before the singularity generator bores a hole through, connecting both points, allowing travel between them. Completely and utterly out of my butt, but i think it would sound good to the average movie goer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 The axis perpendicular to x and iy might be something expressed in powers of minus log(0). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 See, they got Cancer already. We can expect the non-Euclidean invasion to begin in the Seattle area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 This is kind of a weird one. The real geometry of this universe that we know and love so well is a "vector space." By this I mean that any position in space can be defined by its direction and distance from another point. And, furthermore, anything we do to "transform" the ray will still locate the ray within our space. Rotate it, reverse it, reflect it, "right hand rule" it, that sort of thing. But, all the mathematical rules that apply to the real geometry of our actual universe, both in the Euclidean sense that we once thought applied, and to the non-Euclidean one that it actually is, can also be applied to lots of other thingies. (Note: not actually correct terminology.) The example here, of "complex space," is one such vector space. To think outside of the box, so is the state of a rod under temperature variation. The temperature is the magnitude quantity, while its phase state is the directional. Or vice versa. It's been a long time since I saw this example, if you will forgive me. The key point here is that those mathematical rules about transformations hold. Complex space is so useful to us because the transforms are defined as answers to some neat differential equations. So doing geometry in complex space with some well-understood rules yields some very interesting solutions to key equations in electrodynamics and stuff like that. As far as I know --and, as will be obvious by now, I am not a physicist-- there are no useful thingies with properties that allow us to transform vectors in a complex space into a third dimension. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 See, they got Cancer already. We can expect the non-Euclidean invasion to begin inexpand out of the Seattle area.Fixed that for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 Along the lines of Cthulhoid monsters, it may be that mentally studying "higher math" brings the mind into psychic contact with other realities, gradually leading to madness due to their reality-warping properties. It might even allow some intelligent entities from those realities to communicate with or even possess humans in this one. Makes sense, merely opening up my friend's calculus book nearly turned me into a jibbering idiot. (I stopped at Algebra II in my education) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 See, they got Cancer already. We can expect the non-Euclidean invasion to begin in the Seattle area. The Seahawks won the Super Bowl, so it was bound to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 See, they got Cancer already. We can expect the non-Euclidean invasion to begin in the Seattle area. Hey Cancer, is the plot to Lost making sense yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 No, they still are showing only the projection onto the imaginary axis so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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