I was often caught staring into space as a schoolkid, much to my teachers' annoyance. Sometimes I was literally pondering the vastness of time itself and sometimes I was just bored rigid in another lesson about Henry the 8th.
Sometimes I would think about some conundrum I'd heard, some cosmic puzzle or scientific fact that just blew me away. They were like mind-worms, which I just couldn't shake off.
Well, I heard another one the other day. I'd probably heard it before but this time it struck home, a mathematical fact so ongoing that I just cannot get it out of my rather literal head!
When two straight lines are parallel and carry on, they will carry on into infinity....and beyond! [Buzz Lightyear added the last two words!]
So, two parallel lines will travel side by side forever and never stop, presumably until the end of time! How mind-boggling is that!
I have spent many a dormant moment since hearing it chewing the fabric of time and space itself. Despite being tasteless, I have enjoyed visions of parallel time travel, parallel drives and Tron-like grids of extending light.
On top of these grandiose daydreams a single boyish thought has, however, emerged:
Are there any circumstances in the universe in which the two parallel lines carrying on forever could actually come together and meet?
In the name of tedium-busting everywhere I leave it with you readers. Send your thoughts in parallel!
If the lines were light rays, it should be possible to use gravity to distort space-time so that the space the rays were in could bend them towards each other.
ReplyDeleteSo Kevin, would a Black Hole bring the two parallel lines together?
DeleteI replied to this and my comment vanished straight away. Not happened for ages.
ReplyDeleteIt had been deflected by anti-gravity into the blog's spam folder for some odd reason. I have unspammed it and set it free!
DeleteA black hole or,it would seem, blogger, could bend the fabric of space enough to make lines meet, or even vanish into a spam folder.
ReplyDeleteha ha! Blogger has the power to make entire ideas disappear. being an ex-Science teacher, was there any particular science which blew you away?
DeleteI was always intrigued by things that we can't explain yet, like quantum entanglement or dark energy. You get the feeling that something is going on and we haven't a clue.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean Kevin. The magicians is slowly revealing some of their secrets.
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