space

[Fr. espace, from Latin spatium, lit.= that which is drawn out, from the root spa- =to draw out; cf. Gr. spaō =to draw, to draw out; Sp. espacio; Port. espaço; Ital. spazio.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. Extension, considered independently of anything which it may contain; extension considered in its own nature without regard to anything external; room. 2. Any quantity or portion of extension; the interval between any two or more objects. "Apart, some little space , was made The grave where Francis must be laid." Words worth: White Doe, vi. 3. Quantity of time; duration; the interval between two points of time. "After some small space he sent me hither." Shakesp.: As You Like It, iv. 3. *4. A short time; a while. ( Spenser.) II. Technically: 1. Geom.: The room in which an object, actual or imaginary, exists. All material objects po e length, breadth, and thickne ; in other words, they exist in space of three dimensions. Plane surfaces have only two dimensions-length and breadth, and straight lines but one dimension-length. Hence we have notions of space of one dimension and of two dimensions, as distinguished from the three dimensional space in which we live. The question has arisen, and has been warmly discu ed, as to whether space of four, and perhaps of higher dimensions exists. Zöllner ( Transcendental Phys ics ) believes that it does, and that some persons have some of the powers of beings living in space of four dimensions, and thus accounts for many of the phenomena of Spiritualism. For example, while a being living in space of two dimensions could only get in or out of a square by pa ing through one of its sides. a human being could enter the square from above; so, he argues, a person having the properties of a four-dimensional being could enter or leave a closed box or room on its fourth dimensional side. (See Abbott : Flat Land, and Hinton : What is the Fourth Dimension ?) 2. Metaphysics : A conjugate of material exist. ence. Empirical philosophers maintain that notions of space are derived from our knowledge of exist ence; transcendentalists that these notions are innate. [TIME.] 3. Music : One of the four intervals between the five lines of a staff. They take their names from the notes which occupy them; thus, the spaces of the treble staff, counting upward, are F, A, C, and E, and of the ba , A, C, E, and G. 4. Physics: The room in which the Cosmos or universe exists. "As to the infinity of physical space , or the infinity of actual material existence, all that we can say is, that however far we advance (and we have advanced a great deal) in the power of discerning distant objects, we have uniformly found new objects to discern, we have, therefore, good analogical reason for supposing that no limit can be a igned to their still further existence. This view of what is commonly called the infinity of space is further supported by the fact that metaphysical space as a conjugate of material existence in no way precludes the po ibility of its infinite extension."- Brande & Cox . 5. Printing : (1) The interval between words in printed matter. (2) A thin piece of type-metal, shorter than a type, and used to separate the letters in a word or words in a line, so as to justify the line.