Begging your pardon, I have always dislike the 'balloon analogy' simply
because it seems to deceive more then it illuminates. Are we dots on the
surface of the balloon, or are we really part of the skin, in actuality?
Also, there is a new substance, many times the total mass/area of the balloon
called 'helium'-seems to be a dissociated 'surface' of sorts-we'll have to
wait for better telescopes to fund out. More disturbingly, in the exact
opposite direction there seems to be a fantastically large amount of Nitrogen
and Oxygen mixed together. Some of the crazier theorists suggest that there
may even be an ensemble of other balloons out 'there' somewhere, and the most
loony have promoted some concepts of 'non-baloons', how silly can ya get?
In a message dated 7/4/00 7:07:25 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au writes:
<< The guys in Flatland live on the surface of a rubber balloon. One day they
learn that the balloon is inflated by a *huge* quantity of helium gas. Does
this make much practical difference to their moderately complex universe?
Maybe not - helium is pretty simple stuff. >>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:34:06 MDT