Is it a circle, or a line? (Portal question)

[Wintermoot]

a piece of string tied at the end to itself

 

[zfactor]

Actually, you want to view it from end to end through the portal so the right half is linked to the left half and tied together in the middle... Which makes it a line segment because that is what you started with (a part of rope)

Ye I noticed I screwed up the picture so I edited my post, but to late I see.

But if you send in a line rope into 1st portal and when it comes out from the 2nd portal you tie it together with what rope that haven't entered the 1st one yet, then it will be a "circle" as long as the portals are up, but the second you remove one it will cut the rope of, creating a line again.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

It is not a circle (a circle is all points a specific distance from another point) it is a line segment (all the points between two points) because it is still just one rope that happens to be tied to itself...

Better explanation?: If I take a length of rope and tie it to a wall, then stretch it across the room and tie it to the other wall, what is it? A line segment. If I use portals on the wall (as in the picture) and tie it to itself, thereby shifting the entire above description over, it is still a line segment, it just happens to jump across the room.

This entire thing is giving me cranial hemmorrages, but it isn't a circle because there is no raduis and it isn't a line because it doesn't stretch for ininity in both directions (it just seems to because the portals allow it to loop back over itself, but it still occupies the same physical space).

This is a perfect example of video games making us think way too hard... And I'm going to go play portal now...

 

[superbatranger]

It is more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey...stuff. But with portals.

I think.

 

[kebab4you]

Actually, you want to view it from end to end through the portal so the right half is linked to the left half and tied together in the middle... Which makes it a line segment because that is what you started with (a part of rope)

Ye I noticed I screwed up the picture so I edited my post, but to late I see.

But if you send in a line rope into 1st portal and when it comes out from the 2nd portal you tie it together with what rope that haven't entered the 1st one yet, then it will be a "circle" as long as the portals are up, but the second you remove one it will cut the rope of, creating a line again.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

It is not a circle (a circle is all points a specific distance from another point) it is a line segment (all the points between two points) because it is still just one rope that happens to be tied to itself...

Better explanation?: If I take a length of rope and tie it to a wall, then stretch it across the room and tie it to the other wall, what is it? A line segment. If I use portals on the wall (as in the picture) and tie it to itself, thereby shifting the entire above description over, it is still a line segment, it just happens to jump across the room.

This entire thing is giving me cranial hemmorrages, but it isn't a circle because there is no raduis and it isn't a line because it doesn't stretch for ininity in both directions (it just seems to because the portals allow it to loop back over itself, but it still occupies the same physical space).

This is a perfect example of video games making us think way too hard... And I'm going to go play portal now...

Ah I see. You have thought way more then I have about this, I give you that

 

[blankedboy]

Move one of the portals.

Then WOOOOT, YOU'VE BROKEN THE UNIVERSE!

 

[Tsaba]

the issues is a circle has "NO" straight line in it, it's a loop not a line/circle.

Is that really true?
Hold on let me look that up
"A circle is a type of line" -http://www.mathopenref.com/circle.html
Well shit

Congrats you can read! Too bad selective reading doesn't help your argument, I said there is no straight line in a circle in that same page and I quote:

"A circle is a type of line. Imagine a straight line segment that is bent around until its ends join. Then arrange that loop until it is exactly circular - that is, all points along that line are the same distance from a center point."

If all points are the same distance from the center then there is no possibility of that line being straight.

 

[Kjakings]

As I see it:

All the portals do is make the rope shorter and cut out the need for the rest of the earth.

 

[Ekonk]

It's a rhombus.

That's right. A rhombus.

THE KIND OF RECTANGLE A ***** WOULD DRAW.

 

[WolfEdge]

You're all a bunch of nitwits and fools.

Clearly, sirs and madams, it is a rhombus.

EDIT

It's a rhombus.

That's right. A rhombus.

Son of a ***** ninja'd...

 

[Tsaba]

First off, I agree on the sleep comment. I would do exactly that, but I have class in half an hour. Second, the main reason I said that about the four portals thing is that the image gives the distinct impression of there being more to that rope than is being shown in the picture. I guess it would be possible if the portals were exactly as far apart as the rope is long, but then they wouldn't be as well connected as they are in the picture -- it'd just fall off. From what I remember of that game, there was no space between portals, so if you had it spaced exactly like that, it wouldn't be in the portal at all, because there would be no room to touch it. Actually, that explanation makes me think it's a line, because Portal's internal logic wouldn't allow for something like this to happen with no gap, unless the rope wasn't actually in either of the portals.

Here's a diagram of the four portals thing that I was talking about, though


Orange Portal------------------------------Blue Portal
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
|.....................................................................|
Extra Portal 1-----------------------------Extra Portal 2

the dashes represent the rope itself, while the dots are just placeholders to keep the forum from eating my formatting. I guess a triangle would also work, but that would have been a pain to draw.

My argument is that, if you play the game, it's only 2 portals just 2 sides of a doorway in separate places, from the picture that the guy posted for this thread it appears that the ends where close enough to tie a square knot of 1 piece of rope and to be honest, I still don't understand how your getting 4, your diagram isn't helping, I'm just going off the picture posted as a reference for this discussion.

 

[Nazz3]

Well clearly it is-

...


Hmmm...

Move one of the portals.

Then WOOOOT, YOU'VE BROKEN THE UNIVERSE!

Now im even more confused.

 

[Halceon]

It's clearly a line. A circle is an object that consists of an imaginary centerpoint and a set of points on a single plane all equidistant from said center.
This object has no curvature so therefore is not a circle, an ellipse or anything else that isn't a line or a derivative thereof.

Also, why is the line levitating?

 

[greenyboy27]

from this point on we shall refer to this phenomenon as a non-linear Gladosian loop

/thread

 

[SuperNashwan]

This is all very Zen.

I think its a loop, but with the sound of one hand clapping 0_o In a forest.

 

[Shock and Awe]

If you follow the rope you walk in a straight line, therefore it is a line.

 

[Kris015]

Follow the rope and find out.

This, but i don't get how the hell you'd even manage to do the thing in the picture..

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

I think it's a line.

I reckon its a line.

Two questions. Whats holding it up?
And what happens if i pull it in one direction toward a portal. Will it go forever?

 

[Kjakings]

If you follow the rope you walk in a straight line, therefore it is a line.

Yes, but if you follow the Earth you appear to walk in a straight line. The Earth is in fact, round.

Fun curvature fact: There's a road in America that is so straight, for so long that about halfway through there is a 90 degree turn, to account for the curvature of the Earth so it's straight on a map.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Who said it has to go trough the portals? what if it is just floating in between them... Then it is a line.
What if the universe wraps around those two portals so that the line is able to go straight line but the universe is bending, (Assuming the theory of fabric-like universe is true). So in theory it can keep going trough but the universe is bent so that it goes straight line (you can't think this logically, don't even try. You can't)

 

[SinisterGehe]

I think it's a line.

I reckon its a line.

Two questions. Whats holding it up?
And what happens if i pull it in one direction toward a portal. Will it go forever?

"Speedy goes in speedy comes out" -Glados... Or something similar.