Understanding the 4th Dimension

For years scientists have attempted to explain the 4th dimension.  As an avid proponent for leveraging analogies to ‘tell a story’ or ‘explain a principle’, I believe I have found one that might suffice, enabling us to wrap our mind around the concept of this ‘next dimension’ without getting our minds caught up in this ‘space & time’ mental-twister, if you will.

As we live our day to day lives in the 3rd dimension, I’m going to refer to a 3rd dimensional object for which we are all familiar: the cube.

1st Dimension

As we look at the cube, let’s begin with one tip of the cube – a point.   That individual point has no length and no width.  It is simply a location within a system.  Now, consider a separate corner (zero-dimensional point) on that cube and draw a line between the two points.  The line, drawn between the two points represents an object in the first dimension.  It has what we call ‘length’ but it has no width and no height.  It has only one dimension.

2nd Dimension

If we look at one side of our cube, we see a surface.  That surface exists in two dimensions.  Just as a piece of paper, it has length and width, but no height.

3rd Dimension

Next, as we continue to focus on our cube, imagine holding it in your hand.  If we have a pair of dice in our hands and we hold one up and look at it, we see that it has 6 surfaces.  As three dimensional creatures, we see at most sides of it.

4th Dimension

Now lets extrapolate.  A zero dimensional object is represented as a point, or a single location of our cube. A 1st dimensional object is represented as a line… one edge of our cube.  The 2nd dimension can be represented as a surface – or one of the 6 sides of our cube.  In that dimension, we can only see one side of the cube.  In the 3rd dimension, as we look at the cube, as we hold the cube in our hand we can see at most three sides of the cube at any one time.  Are you with me?

In school, we are subjected to the concept that the 4th dimension relates to both space & time.  And so, to infer, within the 4th dimension, you can see all sides of the cube, at the same time. That’s right – as you look at our opaque cube, all six sides are ‘visible’ to you at once, without having to turn it around!   And that’s my provide a novice an observation of what the 4th dimension is.*

*Note – one could certainly attempt to simulate such observations by making the cube transparent or by positioning some mirrors to provide the same effect, but that would cheat the intent of this analogy.

Further reading…

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a wonderful research for learning more about the Fourth dimension as well as Spacetime.

Rob Bryanton’s – Imagining the 10th Dimension

For the uninitiated whom which to gain the perspective of higher dimensions, I highly recommend watching and listening to Rob Bryanton’s Imagining the 10th  Dimension video piece which engages you through the 10th Dimension.  It is a facinating account of how one can grasp the concept of higher dimensions through the concept of ‘folding’.