Message-Id: <199509232045.QAA14911@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Sat, 23 Sep 1995 16:25:35 EDT
Reply-To: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Subject:      Re: direction, dimension
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
Status: OR

And:
> In the case
> of the pencil lead, it is rigid along two paths, the one defined
> by its longest dimension ("lengthways"), and the other defined by its
> shorter dimensions ("sideways").

But that's either not enough or too much. If we allow {tinsa} to include
resistance to stretching/compressing, then how do you know whether
"sideways rigid" means resitant to sideways stretching/compressing,
or resistant to sideways flexing/bending?

If we separate the concept of {tinsa} from stretching/compressing
(which is already taken care of by {tcena}), then there is only
one way in which a 1-d object can be tinsa, and the direction place
is always redundant.

A similar thing happens for 2-d (or quasi 2-d) objects. If we don't
consider stretching/compressing, the only direction in which they
can be tinsa is away from their plane. (Would that be sideways?)
If the object is not symmetrical, though, it may be that it can
only be flexed/bent along one of its planar directions.

> > I could understand a gismu that meant "x1 is x2-dimensional", but
> > I don't think that it makes any sense to say that there are exactly
> > two (or three) things that are the dimensions of some object.
> > Could you list those two or three things for a given object?

Iain:
> Given
>
> cimde              dimension                                 x1 (property -
 ka)
>  is a dimension of space/object x2 according to rules/model x3
> clani     cla      long                                      x1 is long in
>  dimension/direction x2 (default longest dimension) by measurement standard x3
>
> perhaps they are things like {lo ka [se] clani/ganra/condi}.

Well, from the definition of {clani} it would seem that {lo se clani} is
already a dimension. In fact, it would seem that {se clani} means more
or less the same thing as {barda cimde}.

Ok, I guess it's not so hard as I thought, but I'm still not sure
what are the three things that are the only dimensions of three-dimensional
objects that don't have well defined length, width and thickness.

Jorge