Lines Just a thing we created

[Guest NUkes]

Are lines real? I mean as in we as humans alway try to put things in a linear form, So are the actual things that were created or were they created by us to better explain the world and things around it?

By Lines I mean as humans we try to put everything on a line in a linear patter, for example when you graph points we try to make a line with those points Why do we do that?

BY the way I am very young not any older than 9th grade and yet i still am giving you questions you can't answer and thinking deeper than many people on this site.

[5614]

When you say a "line" what are you referring to?

 

I mean, there's a "line" between me and my computer monitor, it's about 50cm, but that's now what you're asking I don't think!

 

I took a piece of paper and drew a "line" using a ruler.

 

There's a yellow "line" on the side of the road.

 

What do you mean?

[5614]

Are lines real?

Yes, here's one: _________

 

for example when you graph points we try to make a line with those points Why do we do that?

To show a pattern or varying number.

 

By Lines I mean as humans we try to put everything on a line in a linear patter

Well I suppose all the dimensions can be visualised as lines and I think what you said was a generalistation and is not always true.

[NMajik]

Errrr, I don't know exactly what he's asking but you just talked about line segments for the most part. Not sure though.

[J.C.MacSwell]

BY the way I am very young not any older than 9th grade and yet i still am giving you questions you can't answer and thinking deeper than many people on this site.

 

Don't worry, soon you will be old and close minded and slow like the rest of us!

[NMajik]

BY the way I am very young not any older than 9th grade and yet i still am giving you questions you can't answer and thinking deeper than many people on this site.

 

Bah, so am I. I don't need to go bragging about it though.

 

(PS: No offense meant)

[Phi for All]

Are lines real? I mean as in we as humans alway try to put things in a linear form,

Yes.

So are the actual things that were created or were they created by us to better explain the world and things around it?

Yes and yes. A line is a representation of a dimension, something we use to explain the world, but that doesn't make them any less "actual".

By Lines I mean as humans we try to put everything on a line in a linear patter, for example when you graph points we try to make a line with those points Why do we do that?

Our brain identifies patterns in all things and seeks to categorize what we sense in relationship to those patterns.

BY the way I am very young not any older than 9th grade

I envy you, and 9th grade is not an age, btw.

and yet i still am giving you questions you can't answer

No, you're not.

and thinking deeper than many people on this site.

Yes, you are.

[J.C.MacSwell]

.. and 9th grade is not an age' date=' btw. .[/quote']

 

It is after the third year in a row. (just kidding)

[ecoli]

Lines do exist...just not in the 3 demensional world that we live in. What we draw and see as a line segment, actually has height and width, and so cannot possibly, by definition be a line.

 

edit: Why is this post in Classical Mechanics?

[Johnny5]

Are lines real?

 

There is no piece of solid matter which is a line.

The center of inertia of a macroscopic three dimensional body, such as a billiard ball is literally a point, with a location in space.

As the ball moves relative to the rest of the material in the universe, the center of inertia of the ball moves in certain reference frames.

 

The path that is traced out by the center of inertia, is a curve, which is a kind of line.

 

But the line isn't real.

 

But of course, time changes discretely, so that the curve is really a sequence of tiny dots.

 

Setting all that aside, forget about curves for now, and answer me this:

 

What is a straight line?

 

Kind regards

[reverse]

I think the direction you are looking for is called perception.

 

it's a topic that was explored in great depth several thousand years ago.

 

it gets down to the understanding that what we get on the inside of our head is not the same as the actual thing on the outside of our head (known as reality).

 

What we get on the inside of our head is a representation or model only.

 

turns out that our internal model is pretty good and it enables us to pretty much get the better of reality.

 

If your internal model is way out, then you are a crazy person, and you get put away if you look like could do too much harm to other people.

 

If your internal model is only slightly out, then you must work for the local council.( that's just a joke )

 

You should maybe wait till you are older before trying to unwrap this one.

As a young person you can spend more time watching the world and particularly how people get on with each other.

that’s just my opinion.

[DavidAngelMX]

BY the way I am very young not any older than 9th grade and yet i still am giving you questions you can't answer and thinking deeper than many people on this site.

 

Look, man, some of the people you´re addressing your question are science students (including me) and-or scientists, and the reason we are is because sometime, and maybe at an earlier age that you, we started making this kind of questions to ourselves and-or other persons, so you should try to be a bit more modest, that is a bliss, believe me, and no one wants a cocky genious.

 

As for the question, my opinion is that, like everything else in physics, lines, as they are summoned in scientific work, are just an abstraction of reality. It is pretty easy for us to understand the space we live in as a three dimensional space where the dimensions are represented by three orthogonal straight lines, and it is also easy for us to think of the distance a body travels (in uniform straight movement) in a determined amount of time as a straight line mapped out by the proportionality constant ¨velocity¨.

 

So lines do exist in our interpretation of the world, but you won´t find any dimensionless straight line anywhere.

[Klaynos]

a line is a projection of a 3dimentional (not nessacarally carteissean, and in the "real" world caretessian coordinates don't really work) plane onto a 2 dimentional system, so they do exist.

[jordan]

for example when you graph points we try to make a line with those points Why do we do that?

I guess if the concept of linear graphs bugs you then you can always think of them as a infinite number of points between two given points.

[Asimov Pupil]

I think (And correct me if i'm wrong) that lines exist in a perfect system whether it just be a mathematical equation, or the fabric of space whithout any gravitational disturbances, so your lines question I think is more of an applied question, Is there lines in the universe well yes there are..... but due to the abnormalies of spacetime we don't come across them very often, but they do exist.

[Asimov Pupil]

plus you say you are bout 9th grade.

 

ooooo just wait! you'll be far from staight lines soon!