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From: tima@polari.UUCP (tim anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: 4D Visualization (If you think you do it, you probably don't)
Summary: NURBS reside in the 4th dimension...
Message-ID: <1263@polari.UUCP>
Date: 9 Feb 90 23:29:10 GMT
References: <99@emtek.UUCP> <16033@well.sf.ca.us> <6162@eos.UUCP>
Reply-To: tima@polari (tim anderson)
Organization: PolarServ, Seattle WA
Lines: 16

NURBS are generally thought of to reside in the fourth dimension. They get
'mapped' to 3d (then to 2d \grin) by some projective geometry. This, in turn, 
interpretes the '4th' coordinate as a pulling effect to the 'normal' 3D
coordinates. I would hate to stick 'time' into the 4D to 3D NURBS mapping,
because NURBS would look different depending on the clock speed of the 
CPU the program was currently running on. (This is a JOKE...)

If I remember correctly, someone proved the existence of two 4th dimensions.
This solution makes all of the Physicists happy, because they can say that
time is the fourth dimension, and it makes the Mathematicians happy because 
they can say it isn't...

tima@polari
uw-beaver!sumax!polari!tima

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