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[palsch]

This wiki page is good reading as well.

[palsch]

In other words, that's how it works, but our brains can't comprehend it due to the fact they don't work over all the dimensions?

I don't think you need a 4-dimensional brain to comprehend 4-dimensional matters, but it's hard and not a naturally gained skill (not common sense in a sense).

You can certainly learn to manipulate that sort of thing mathematically, and a sufficient intuition at such mathematics is comparable to an intuitive manipulation of 2/3D spacial problems. It's more that such an intuitive grasp of matters is not naturally gained by living in a 3D world.

Short of starting from mathematical descriptions and working on building that intuition about how higher dimensional systems work, lower dimensional analogies are the best method of explaining matters.

[Aklyon]

Dimensions are weird.

[Putnam]

Dimensions are weird.

No they're not, you are for not understanding them

Also, don't think that you haven't used 4 dimensional math before! Any problem with more than 3 variables is by definition a problem with more than 3 dimensions.

[Sheb]

Yeah, but you just don't think of it in terms of dimensions.

[Descan]

Not much of an update about the warp drive, but it's interesting.

For those curious, the White-Juday interferometer experiments haven't yet borne fruit. "Inconclusive"

[Reelya]

http://science-beta.slashdot.org/story/14/06/11/0421217/theres-no-wind-chill-on-mars

Even though daytime temperatures in the tropics of Mars can be about –20C, a summer afternoon there might feel about the same as an average winter day in southern England or Minneapolis. That's because there's virtually no wind chill on the Red Planet, according to a new study — the first to give an accurate sense of what it might feel like to spend a day walking about on our celestial neighbor. "I hadn't really thought about this before, but I'm not surprised," says Maurice Bluestein, a biomedical engineer and wind chill expert recently retired from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. The new findings, he says, "will be useful, as people planning to colonize Mars need to know what they're getting themselves into."

No breathable air, either. But it suggests people will be able to go out with relatively minimal gear compared to what you'd think. Oxygen mask, anorak, visor, maybe a lead shielded umbrella if you're worried about solar radiation.

Also:
http://science-beta.slashdot.org/story/14/06/11/0148219/biodegradable-fibers-as-strong-as-steel-made-from-wood-cellulose

A team of researchers working at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology claim to have developed a way to make cellulose fibers stronger than steel on a strength-to-weight basis. In what is touted as a world first, the team from the institute's Wallenberg Wood Science Center claim that the new fiber could be used as a biodegradable replacement for many filament materials made today from imperishable substances such as fiberglass, plastic, and metal. And all this from a substance that requires only water, wood cellulose, and common table salt to create it. The full academic paper is available from Nature Communications.

It's a good thing that the elves aren't aware of this.

[Sheb]

Won't you need a pressurized suit anyway? Surface pressure is 0.6% of Earth's.

[Reelya]

Yeah, you're right I hadn't taken that into consideration. Still, heat insulation would probably be less of an issue than Antarctica, meaning suits won't need to be so bulky.

[Sheb]

Suits aren't bulky because of insulation. In vacuum, insulation isn't a big deal because you only loose heat through radiation.

[Sergarr]

Suits aren't bulky because of insulation. In vacuum, insulation isn't a big deal because you only loose heat through radiation.

I think they are bulky to provide a recirculation system for water and oxygen.

[Il Palazzo]

They're bulky because they're pressurised.

[10ebbor10]

The human body is surprisingly apt at keeping in pressure, actually. As long as your mask is properly fitted, and covers both your head and ears, you should be relatively fine. (perhaps other orifices,  I dunno)

Assuming you're not wounded or anything. That would be problematic.

[Sheb]

And also much harder to make than the old "make a person-shaped baloon and inflate it" way of making a spacesuit. There is a reason we're still not using elastic fabric.

10ebbor10: Then why on Earth do we bother with spacesuit?

[Mech#4]

It's kind of the same as deep sea diving isn't it? You don't want to spend long periods under high pressure, nor do you want to resurface quickly after being under higher pressure.