Tycho Magnetic Anomaly TMA-1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tycho Magnetic Anomaly-1 (also known as TMA-1) is a fictional phenomenon in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and the book of the same name, based on Arthur C. Clarke's short story The Sentinel. TMA-1 refers to the apparent magnetic irregularity found at the Tycho crater on the moon surface by American astronauts. The anomaly is caused by an object buried 30 feet under the lunar surface; when exposed, it was found to be a black cuboid whose sides measured in the precise ratio 1:4:9 (12:22:32). In the book it is indicated that this ratio extends past the three spatial dimensions we are familiar with.
An identical (except in size) object was found later, orbiting Jupiter (on a moon of Saturn in the book, although this was changed to Jupiter in the sequel book, 2010). This object was dubbed "TMA-2" even though it had no relationship to the Tycho crater and no magnetic field. (TMA-2 was often referred to as "big brother" due to David Bowman's comments on it, and its paradoxical appearance inside the isolated bedchamber at the foot of Bowman's deathbed.) These objects are called monoliths. By the year 3001, the first Monolith to be encountered by mankind's prehistoric evolutionary predecessors was found in Africa buried in ancient rock, and was retroactively dubbed "TMA-0".
[edit] Dimensions of the Monolith
In the book 2001: A Space Odyssey, on the chapter 31 "Survival", Arthur C. Clarke writes: One curious, and perhaps quite unimportant, feature of the block had led to endless argument. The monolith was 11 feet high, and 1 1/4 by 5 feet in cross-section. When its dimensions were checked with great care, they were found to be in the exact ratio 1 to 4 to 9 - the square of the first three integers.
In fact, the monolith is a little bit higher than 11 feet: if you multiply one and a quarter by 9, that gives 11 and a quarter feet and not 11. That confirms the exactitude of the ratio 1:4:9.
