Flatland facts for kids
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a short novel, also called a novella, written by Edwin Abbott Abbott. It was published in 1884. The story takes place in a make-believe world that has only two dimensions. This means the characters can only move forwards, backwards, left, and right, but never up or down.
The book is a satire, which means it uses humor, irony, or exaggeration to make fun of or criticize people's silly ideas or bad habits. Flatland makes fun of society during the Victorian era in Britain. It also explores interesting ideas about different dimensions.
Contents
What is Flatland About?
A World of Shapes
Imagine a world where everyone is a flat shape. In Flatland, the characters are geometric shapes like squares, triangles, and circles. Men are usually polygons (shapes with many sides), and women are straight lines. They live on a flat surface, like a giant piece of paper.
They can see each other, but only as lines. For example, if a square walks past you, you would only see a line that gets wider or narrower depending on how it turns. This is because they can't see "up" or "down."
Life in a Flat World
The society in Flatland has strict rules. The more sides a shape has, the higher its social status. Circles are at the top, like the priests. Squares and triangles are common citizens. Women, who are just lines, have the lowest status.
The book shows how people in Flatland are very set in their ways. They believe their two-dimensional world is the only world that exists. They can't imagine anything beyond it.
Exploring Dimensions
Meeting a Sphere
The main character of Flatland is a Square. One day, he has a strange dream about a one-dimensional world called Lineland. Then, he meets a mysterious visitor from a three-dimensional world. This visitor is a Sphere.
The Sphere tries to explain what a three-dimensional world is like. The Square finds it very hard to understand. He can only see the Sphere as a changing circle as it passes through his flat world. This part of the story helps us think about how we might struggle to understand dimensions beyond our own.
Lessons on Understanding
The book uses the idea of different dimensions to make us think. It asks us to consider how we see the world. It suggests that there might be more to reality than what we can easily see or understand. It encourages us to be open-minded and to question what we think we know.
Why Was Flatland Written?
Satire on Victorian Society
Edwin Abbott Abbott wrote Flatland to criticize some aspects of Victorian society. He used the flat world to show how people in his time were often narrow-minded. They had strict social classes and didn't always accept new ideas.
- Social Classes: The different shapes in Flatland represent the social classes in Victorian England. People were judged by their birth or wealth.
- Role of Women: The way women are treated in Flatland reflects the limited roles women had in Victorian society.
- Resistance to New Ideas: The Flatlanders' difficulty in understanding a third dimension shows how people often resist new scientific or social ideas.
A Look at Mathematics
Abbott was a school teacher and a theologian. He was interested in mathematics and geometry. The book is a fun way to explore mathematical concepts like dimensions and geometry. It makes these complex ideas easier to imagine.
Flatland is still popular today because its ideas about society, understanding, and different dimensions are still relevant.
Images for kids
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Illustration of a simple house in Flatland.
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The last sketch in the book.
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See also
In Spanish: Flatland, romance of many dimensions para niños
