Re: Help me understand why sound is one dimensional
Reply #82 –
You can make every 4-dimensional function one-dimensional by fixing 3 of the free variables. If you fix all spatial variables, leaving only the time free, then you have a one-dimensional function that describes the pressure over time at this fixed point in space. Of course, you can do this for any given point, as you say.
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This is a theoretical view, for sure, but I hope the point is clear: A 4-dimensional function can be converted to an "array" of lesser-dimensional functions, one for each combination of the variables that have been eliminated. This doesn't change the fundamental situation.
Hopefully the point is clear since it seemed to me that the straw vote was that sound was multidimensional. Heck, I also made the comment in error that an anechoic environment increases the dimension count.
The next question is the dimensionality of how hard-headed the participants are in this discussion.