Flatland

Flatland is a particularly popular novel among mathematics, physics and computer science students, as its easy reading is useful for studying the concept of multiple dimensions. As a literary work, Flatland is an example of the satire of social hierarchy prevailing in the Victorian era. I call our world Flatland not because we call it so, but to help you better understand its nature, you, my happy readers, who have the privilege of living in Space. Imagine a huge sheet of paper on which Straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons and other Figures, instead of remaining fixed in their place, move freely on or on the surface, but without having the ability to rise above or sink below this surface, quite like shadows, except that they are hard and have bright edges and you will have a pretty good idea of my country and my compatriots. Alas, a few years ago, I would have said of my universe: but now my mind has opened up to a higher conception of things. You will immediately realize that, in a similar country, there can be nothing you call strong, but you will suppose, I believe, that we are at least able to visually distinguish between these two. Triangles, Squares, and other figures moving about, as I have described to you. On the contrary, we can not perceive anything of this kind, at least with enough sharpness to allow us to distinguish one Figure from another. We do not see, we can only see Straight Lines and I will show you the reason at once.

Dettagli