Perhaps I should have post this in the philosophy section but I believe here was more appropriate.
the question is;
If the 0 dimension is a point
the 1st dimension a line without width
the second, a square without depth
and the 3rd a cube (without god knows 'what')
Is there a way to visualize (or conceptualize) the fourth dimension?
and ofcourse what would the 'what' as stated above be, or 'might'
2007-02-10 08:58:14 · 6 answers · asked by zentoccino 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
You can't directly perceive a fourth dimension, but you CAN percieve it's "3 dimensional shadow". The person that described the tesseract (or hypercube) did a good job.
You can also depict the Universe as a "hypersphere"..the 4 dimensional "extention" of a sphere...by imagining going in a straight line outward in any given direction in 3 dimensions. No matter which direction you go, so long as you remain in an apparent straight line, you'll wind up returning to the position you originally started from....much like walking the surface of the earth in a straight line.
Personally, I don't see why this concept can't go on forever into an infinite number of dimensions....mind-boggling or not.
BTW..that fourth dimension is actually TIME.
2007-02-10 09:32:22 · answer #1 · answered by bradxschuman 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Dimensions are all about orthogonality.
Its not about points, lines or anything like that.
What three dimensional means is that you can move in each of three different directions without moving in any of the other ones - they are orthogonal. Try to move in a fourth and you will find it is simply a combination of the other three. Time adds a fourth dimension you can move in without moving in any of the spatial dimensions.
2007-02-10 09:06:25 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
A point in the Universe relates a location of a zero reference frame.It requires a coordinate which can be expressed in Cartesian,polar,spherical,elliptical and Gaussian coordinates.
We can locate a point with a ball point on a piece of paper but the marking area of a point depends how small the needle to indent a point is. One standard diameter of a point is on the average 3/8 of a millimeter.
The motion of a sphere in motion can be fotographed using a stroboscope. the locus of the moving volume can be traced this way.
So in order to observe the motion you are basically using an inverse time which is the frequency of the stroboscope.
So time is a quantity that can be used in measurement of motion.
And that is what velocity is all about . without time velocity cannot be measured.
There are four quantities in the Universe that are uniquely used for measurement, these are;mass in kg,distance in meters,angles in degress,and time in seconds.
All phenomena in the Universe and dimensions can be analysed using the four basic quantities of the Universe.
Hope this helps on your dilemma
Reality is what we can touch and see.and experience.
Some things have volumes and shapes. so in reality for something to exist it must have a shape.
2007-02-10 09:30:00 · answer #3 · answered by goring 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes their is, the four dimensional cube is called a tesseract. You know how you draw the diagonal lines and connect them to make a 2 dimensional square a cube, take all the lines and connect them on a cube (I don't know which ones to connect to what parts though) and you will have a tesseract.
2007-02-10 09:17:50 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
A cube is a three dimensional entity all it needs to exist is a single dimension of time.
2007-02-11 01:21:39 · answer #5 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
4th is a rotating cube.
2007-02-10 09:08:11 · answer #6 · answered by Clown Knows 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋