A Rational Cosmology: Coordinate Systems

Essay XV

This is Essay XV of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

To render it simpler to relate any one of the multitude of entities in existence to any other among such entities, it is possible to devise a coordinate system based on three numerical parameters which measure each of the three qualities known as dimensions.

The measurement interval deemed a unit in the coordinate system must necessarily be an arbitrary product of human decision, since no such thing as space exists, and thus no absolute markers on it are provided to determine what the one true unit must be.

However, this arbitrarily selected interval must uniformly denote a unit in all instances in which this coordinate system is used. It is impermissible to have a given interval declared the stretch from position 0 to position 1, and then have position 2 pronounced to be thrice as far from position 0 as position 1.

Moreover, the coordinate system must assume an arbitrary starting point, or origin, in which each of the three dimensional parameters has value zero. This point could be located on an entity or outside it, however human convenience may dictate, so long as due caution is exercised not to mistake such a point, or any point for an entity in itself.

Every point on the coordinate system, including the origin, is merely a part of a mental model used by man to interpret the real relationship between entities in three dimensions.