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Re: A question about mirrors

Subject: Re: A question about mirrors
Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2000 03:43:58 +0530
From: Abhishek Roy <fingerslip@YAHOO.COM>

Of course if they were familiar
with a standard mirrors, or atleast the mathematical transformation, they
might explain it way. But without the above, it seems to me that they would
first - by pure cerebration - discover the property of 'handedness' (in the
general case- not just for that object or a class of objects).

They might surmise that something is different about the object, but
with no other examples and without even the mathematical reflection
transformation (!?), they would be unable to put into words what that
difference is -- let alone do so rigorously. And, talking about
rotations in n+1 space is just a fancy way of saying x -> -x.

This all seems similar to defining arithmetic without reference to
numbers.

Glenn A. Carlson, P.E.
St. Charles County Community College
St. Peters, MO
gcarlson@mail.win.org