Threes in Space

Threes define us in space.  Three dimensions shape our world.  Literally.  Height, width and depth.  If you extend those measures using Cartesian coordinates in three dimensions, you will produce the X, Y and Z axes.  On these you are able to plot any point in space.  Astronomers looking out into that space orient themselves to objects in the sky by using earthly references to latitude, longitude and azimuth.  Pilots know about roll, pitch and yaw.  Carpenters think in terms of plumb, level and square.  Or length, width and thickness.

Our understanding of three-dimensional space is thought to be learned unconciously during infancy and is closely related to hand-eye coordination.  The visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions is called depth perception.

U.S. Navy Seals snipers use code for three dimensions when sighting in on a target.  “We used color codes for each side: white, front: black, rear: green the building’s own right; and red, the building’s left….The phonetic alphabet designated each floor: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta….Windows were numbered left to right: one, two, three….If someone moved in the front left window, I’d report the window: White, Bravo, One.  Thus we cut down on needless chatter,” writes Howard Wasdin in Seal Team Six.

A new camera called the Lytro uses an underlying technique, “light-field photography,” to allow the viewer to change the focus to any layer from foreground to background in the field of view—after the photograph is taken!  The result is a photograph that’s less a slice of visual information than a cube from which you can choose whichever layer would make the most pleasing two-dimensional image for printing and framing.  Pretty cool.