What is the 4th dimension?

What is the 4th dimension?

No, we are not talking about time here. Most of us have come to associate the 4th dimension with time from reading too much science fiction. That may be true, but the 4th dimension has a much more direct interpretation. Our world as many people know is 3 dimensional. That means that we have 3 perpendicular 'axes' of motion, in other words, we can move up and down, forwards and backwards, left and right. If we were to be only 2 dimensional beings, we would only be able to move forwards and backwards, left and right, or any combination of 2 of the three pairs of ranges of motion in 3 dimensions. If we were to be furthur limited to one dimension, then we would only have one range of motion.

Now, lets take a step forward. What about the 4th dimension? Well, for a start, we would have not 3 but 4 axes of motion. Imagine how much freedom we would have! But how is this possible? For us 3 dimensional beings, it is impossible to picture the 4th dimension because we have never been there, and even if we did our 3 dimensional minds would not be able to comprehend the 4 dimensional objects and 'see' them. In order to fully understand the 4th dimension in this section, analogies from the 2nd dimension to the 3rd dimension will be used. Using analogy, we will first try to get a 'feel' of 4-space, or 4 dimensional space.

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I recently read a book that talked about this, (It was written by a phycisist, not SciFi) Truthfuly higher dimensions have always interested me.
I was thinking in a fourth dimension maybe you can not only go in the 3-D dimensions, but also expand, shrink, move in two directions at once, or seperate and merge. Just a few ideas I ahd.

Well we humans only at most use like 10% of our brains; the brain's true potential is left untapped. So who knows what we could realize if we had more evolved brains.

Sorry to be a pain in the back but you are aware that this is a "weaponry" forum, no?

i read once about there being an infinite amount of dimensions. that would only be if you interpret the other dimensions as time thus there could be an infinite amount, which would mean there are many many other things happeing in the space space as us but we can't see them cause there on a different time. im not too sure how you could have 4 axis of movement though, because all you have is up down, left right, forward backwards, i guess you could start counting the diagnols but that's just a mixture of the 3 axis...there would be no new way to define a 4th axis

Well, considering time as the 4th dimension isn't all science fiction, it is part of Einstein's relativity theory too, I believe.

As for this universe, I don't think we will ever come close to understanding it until we evolve and have more brainpower, or, through technology, figure out a way to tap into that extra brain power. Who knows.

There is also from the planke dual-slit experiment the theory that there are infinite universes even, and that endless possibilities happen for every moment of your existence. So in this version, you may decide to go read a book later on, in another version, you may not. And in another version youm ay have a completely different life because of a decision you made long ago in that universe that changed it.

Personally I think there is just this universe and that Planke's dual slit experiment just isn't understood because light itself is not understood. No one knows WHAT exactly light is.

But yeah, this is a weapons forum.

To explains this you need to examine a tesseract . You have all made a matrix Which is a cross of six squares which can be folded into a cube ie

>........._
>......_|_|_ _
>.....|_|_|_|_|
>........|_|

Sorry for the crap ASCII art (edit : bugger ASCII Art wont work unless....Ignore the dots)

Now if you make the same shape out of Cubes it is possible to fold this into a 4 dimentional shame unfortunatly our silly 3d brains can comprehend it


[edit on 20/12/2004 by Flux Wilde]

[edit on 20/12/2004 by Flux Wilde]

I thought the 4th dimension was time...

4 dimension is that of the mind....not the brain....the brain is able to understand simplisity....were the mind is free to wounder for ever.....it is up to you as an individual to put the things that you capture in 4 dimension in to viwe in this dimesion 3d......to me 4 dimension is only the dream state.....or rem if you will.....human time does not matter in a dream...only you!

just some food for thoughts...
ONE!

If we could see the 4th dimension with our physical eyes:
Thoughts could be seen, ugly ones and nice ones and you
could directly see the results of these thoughts towards
whoever or whatever they're directed at.
Auras would be easily visible.
Beings that live in the 4th dimension could be seen by us.

If we could hear the 4th dimension with our physical ears:
You could hear the thoughts of anyone (living or dead, past,
present or future)
You could probably hear beings who have the ability to move
between dimensions going in or out.
(probably sounds like something breaking the sound barrier).

All of this stuff is happening around us right now and more.
We just can't see it, because we're like goldfish that live in a
bowl and we think that "our bowl" is the whole universe.

When you finished understanding the fourth dimension, youd have to start work understanding the 5th-12th dimensions, If the 4th dimension is so great just imagine what the other 8 must be like.

Originally posted by A5H
I thought the 4th dimension was time...

Im with you on this one the 4th dimension is time. But if you are talking about a 4th spatial dimension I dont think anybody can answer that.

There is a raging debate going on (and probably will go on forever) about whether the fourth dimension is time, or whether it is a 4th spatial dimension.

I thought TIME does NOT EXIST!

Aint I right? everyone or thing has different perception of time...!

[edit on 8-1-2005 by mwen]

I've heard that theres also a theoretical second dimension of time. In theory you could aparently comunicate through time utilizing this second time dimension.

String theory predicts something like 11 dimensions, the additional dimensions beyond the 3 of space and 1 of time are very short and tightly curled so we don't notice them in everyday life. There is an excellent NOVA series The Elegant Universe on string theory.

My physics professor told me that we live in a 3 dimensional universe traveling through time (the fourth dimension).

Come to think of it I have read a scifi story about the fourth dimension the likes of which you speak. "A Victim of Higher Spaces" by Algernon Blackwood. Not a bad short story either.

[edit on 8-1-2005 by sinatracementshoes]