Why do so many people think that time is the fourth dimension?

Question

Time is a unit of measurement, just like inches or centimeters or degrees. Time measures distance - like how far away is something, how long will it take to get there? How can anyone justify that time is the forth dimension. It just doesn't make sense. Hasn't anyone ever heard of light-speed? Like how long does light take to reach an object, as a unit of measurement.

Does anyone have any valid arguments? Or can anyone tell me something else that may be regarded as being fourth dimensional? Personally I think you're all retards if you believe that time is the fourth dimension. We are in this 3 dimensional world, and that is all we have to deal with - get over it.

Answer 1

You've asked a very good question. When physicists refer to time as the fourth dimension, they don't mean that time is another spatial dimension like the 3 spatial dimension of up/down, right/left, and forwards/backwards.

However, it turns out that time and space are intricately linked that Einstein coined the term "spacetime" in his Theory of Special and General Relativity. Also, time is not simply a measure of passage of events, because time and space are NOT absolute in the sense that time is flowing at the same rate everywhere to everyone, or that distance can be mesaured identically the same everywhere to everyone. Einstein discovered that depending on how fast you're moving, time, distance, mass, energy are all affected. This is because the speed of light is invariant no matter where you are and how fast you're moving, and nothing can travel faster than light.

In addition, Einstein discovered that spacetime forms a 4-dimensional surface that can be warped by the presence of matter and energy. This warping of spacetime fabric is what gravity is. So when you throw an apple up in the air and it falls back down to Earth, you are witnessing the apple following the shortest path possible along the warped spacetime 4-d manifold caused by the presence of the mass of the Earth.

Answer 2

You are thinking in tremendously simplistic and mechanical terms. There are multiple dimensions. There are different dimensions. Those that are used to quantify our sense reality and those that parametrize a specific system.

In some linear programming problems there can be dozens and dozens and dozens of 'dimensions'. Each characterizing a part of the system under investigation.

Time is a perfectly valid parameter (dimension) to quantify our reality. Correction however.....time does NOT measure distance. Time is time, it is measured in units of time; seconds, days, years. It does not measure distance. It is a duration under which other things occur.

Einstein used time because it is inescapable in what he was describing. Time dialtion for example. The fact that time itself varies based on the speed of an object in the reference frame of an observer not in the objects inertial frame.

You must accept that the world does not consist of up, down, left and right. There is much, much more going on, and however you learned what a 'dimension' is, you may want to revisit that again.

You must realize that there are abstractions that go beyond what you see (3 dimensions -- all considered a distance, and all orthogonal (perpindicular) to each other). What about coordinate systems that are different than that, what about other kinds of spaces besides what you are talking about, which is 3-d Euclidean space. What about phase space, where a spatial quantity like distance is taken along with a momentum to describe something. Statistical Mechanics utilizes this quite regularly. If you know something's momentum, you also know something about it mass and velocity, and if you know the velocity, you also know something about its direction. It's quite useful.

If one is to understand those things which lie beyond our senses, we must also accept the fact that we must also think beyond our senses too.

Answer 3

It is not that it's THE 4th dimension, the argument is that it's a HIGHER dimension.

Think of having two 2D planes, one above the other, one of them is 12:00, one is 12:05. You are a circle, you move towards the edge of the "plane". As you move, and as time moves forward, you create a trail, called a "worm" This worm is a 3D trail that shows your movement over time.

The same goes for the 3rd dimension, but your trail is 4D, which we can't imagine... yet!

Answer 4

I have to disagree.
I understand Einstiens theory and he was smarter than you.
He wasn't a retard.
You aren't a retard you just can't grasp the concept.
If you were a retard you wouldn't give it any thought.
Time adds a fourth dimension to your life.
Things that happened yesterday are in a different dimension than the same event today or tomorrow.
Deal with it. you can't get over reality.

Answer 5

Einstein proposed it, as it not only gives a physical location, it also gives a time location.

You need time, otherwise everything happens all at once.

And time is more than a mere measurement, it does exist

Answer 6

the 3D world we live in as time advances the objects or people are affected .check the relativity equation of Albert Einstein,if no time everything will stop.