The 4th Dimension
The journey into the 4th Dimension
4/19/12
Nature of Math
The world we live in today is a world of 3-dimensions filled with objects that are zero, one and two dimensions. We all walk around in our 3-dimensional world thinking there could be no other dimensions. But would you believe me if I were to tell you that there is a 4th dimension that lies past our daily experience? The truth is that there is a 4th dimension and it’s not that far away, the crazy thing is that there could be an infinite number of other dimensions out there as well that we will never see and that our minds cannot even begin to fathom. In order for you to fully understand the possibility of a 4th and possibly other dimensions I first need to explain the three prior and how they work. Let’s start with 0 –dimensions. When we classify an object’s dimensions we classify it according to the number of degrees of freedom it has. Therefore a 0-dimensional object would have zero degrees of freedom and would be represented as a point. With 0-dimensions you do not need any information to locate a point within that dimension. This is true because any 0-dimensional object has no length width or height. Now think about taking that point and simply sweeping it to the left like you are drawing a line with the point. By sweeping the point in a line you have just taken a zero dimensional point and created a 1-dimensional line. All of 1-dimensional space is a line. Within a line there is only one degree of freedom, or one direction in which the line is capable of moving. It may seem like a line should be classified as a 2-dimensional object because it can move left and right but really it is based on how many different directions the line travels, which is one left and right. Now think about a line as your street. Your specific house would only be one point on that street and in order to find it you would only need to tell one number in order for it to be found. Now if we take the 1
4/19/12
Nature of Math
The world we live in today is a world of 3-dimensions filled with objects that are zero, one and two dimensions. We all walk around in our 3-dimensional world thinking there could be no other dimensions. But would you believe me if I were to tell you that there is a 4th dimension that lies past our daily experience? The truth is that there is a 4th dimension and it’s not that far away, the crazy thing is that there could be an infinite number of other dimensions out there as well that we will never see and that our minds cannot even begin to fathom. In order for you to fully understand the possibility of a 4th and possibly other dimensions I first need to explain the three prior and how they work. Let’s start with 0 –dimensions. When we classify an object’s dimensions we classify it according to the number of degrees of freedom it has. Therefore a 0-dimensional object would have zero degrees of freedom and would be represented as a point. With 0-dimensions you do not need any information to locate a point within that dimension. This is true because any 0-dimensional object has no length width or height. Now think about taking that point and simply sweeping it to the left like you are drawing a line with the point. By sweeping the point in a line you have just taken a zero dimensional point and created a 1-dimensional line. All of 1-dimensional space is a line. Within a line there is only one degree of freedom, or one direction in which the line is capable of moving. It may seem like a line should be classified as a 2-dimensional object because it can move left and right but really it is based on how many different directions the line travels, which is one left and right. Now think about a line as your street. Your specific house would only be one point on that street and in order to find it you would only need to tell one number in order for it to be found. Now if we take the 1