2006-12-24 08:18:55 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Depending on what you're talking about, the first three are probably the three spacial dimensions we normally experience. The fourth is probably time, and if we're talking about string theory, the others are extra spacial dimensions for the strings to vibrate in and get their various properties from, like charge and mass and such.
2006-12-24 08:22:58 · answer #1 · answered by incorrigible_misanthrope 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Sci-Fi movies like to make this more exotic than it really is.
A line is one dimentional.
A square is two dimentional.
A cube is three dimentional.
WE are three dimentional.
A dimention is a direction which is perpendicular to another direction. When I draw a line, I find the perpendicular direction by drawing another line across it.
Now we are in 2D space, which is a flat plane. If I draw a line through the surface of this "plane", the line is perpendicular and brings me into the 3rd dimention.
If we can find a direction to draw a line perpendicular to the 3rd dimention, that would be the 4th dimention. We can't do this because we can't "see" above our own dimesion but mathematically we can represent an infinite number of dimetions and scientists speculate that some of these dimensions really exist.
Another way to think about it is this (paraphrased from an article)
Let's say you have a table and two dimentional beings live on the surface of it. They cannot perceive the 3rd dimention like we can't perceive the 4th. You set a cylindrical can of sodaon the table but the 2D people don't see a cylinder, they see a circle spontaneously appear. Then you pick he can back up, but since they can't perceive "up", ,the circle spontaneously disappears. The height of the can is said to be "expressed" in the 3rd dimention. So if we could perceive the 4th dimention ordinary things might seem very different to us. We might discover they have properties we didn't know about because those properties don't express themselves in the 3rd dimention.
P.S. Time is often considered the 4th dimention but it is a temporal dimention, not a spatial dimention.
2006-12-24 16:40:33 · answer #2 · answered by minuteblue 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the first four dimensions are those we already experience in our dayly life. To simplyfy this: 3 axis of movement in our world + time as the fourth dimension.
dimensions above 4 are a theoretical constructions to support mathematical models of the universe which are still under development.
it would be a impossible to explain this until you are fully aware how 4 dimensions form the current 'spacetime' we believe to live in.
2006-12-24 11:32:49 · answer #3 · answered by blondnirvana 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You should read...but it's in a very weird old english language...a book called Flatland...but this is how they explained it in there...
1st is just a point... it can't move at all
2nd is like a tv or a sheet of paper....or a map...north, south, east and west...directions only
3rd is what we live in...north south east west and up and down directions...
4th and on have only been just thought on but...it's believed that they deal with time...and a direction that we interact with yet are not aware of...just like 2nd has and up and down...but they're not aware of it...ok nevermind...
Read Flatland it'll make more sense...if you can understand it...
2006-12-24 08:25:51 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
1-4th has been answered already, any "higher" dimensions are currently theorehtical only. 5-10 (currently no higher dimensions currently exist mathematically) deal with concepts such as stirng theory and hyperspace.
2006-12-24 08:29:21 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Length, width, depth is all I know about.
2006-12-24 08:26:30 · answer #6 · answered by ♫ giD∑■η ♫ 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋