Would you dare to imagine the Fourth Dimension? | A quixotic writeup!
Thought-provoking thoughts
Have you ever wondered, if there would exist a higher dimension, in addition to the so-called X, Y, and Z dimensions? Have you ever felt how weird or amazing our lives would be if the universe had (has) a few more spatial dimensions? I know there are a lot of sci-fi movies that elaborate on the existence of the fourth dimension, but don’t you feel there could be a fifth, sixth, and seventh dimension? Wait, is it going to be infinite of them? Well, there was a situation when physicists decided to apply a postulated theory on both big (extremely big) things and small (in the scale of nano’s) things. Here the idea of three (and even four) dimensions didn’t uphold the theory, it was when physicists and mathematicians tweaked the concept to include 10 dimensions — their equations worked perfectly fine!
The fourth dimension! Time? Really…? Wait a MINUTE…
Based on theories and mathematics, one can prove that higher dimensions exist. But how would you imagine one? Let’s say, the fourth dimension is Time, then what would be 5th? Smell? Love? (Hello Interstellar fans!) If you ask this question to yourself and others, it would seem very natural and obvious that Time rightly claims as to the fourth dimension. But, hold on, I believe time exists in all the spatial dimensions. On an X-Y plane, I draw a point (x1, y1) after say t seconds, I draw another point at (x2, y2). Do you see how t independent and everywhere? I consider time as a tool of measurement, just like grams and liters. There a “delay” and “mass” are two units in the following sentences: “Add 200 grams more cereal for the scale to level.” and “Wait for 20 minutes for the next bus to arrive.”
It was the Babylonians who 1 hour has 60 minutes and each minute has 60 seconds. Why 60? Well, it has more divisors than (say) 10 or 100. Time, as I understand, is an (imaginary) tool that we humans have discovered throughout the stories of evolution and the future. Time has helped us measure how far we stand from the big-bang. Or rather, how far I (along with other programmers) stand since January 1, 1970.
So what is it then?
I do not know what the higher dimension would look like, and neither do many scientists who spent their lives in this quest.
The fourth dimension is something that we cannot travel in (at least as of now) but are comprised in it. The fourth dimension is something that we are not equipped to visualize. But hey, there’s a way, we can try to ballpark what the fourth dimension would be, that is to imply our understanding to go from 3D to 4D.
Let us begin from the Dot. Often referred to as a singularity, a point in one dimension. ( Fun fact: The center of a black hole is a gravitational singularity.) This is Zero-dimension.
Now, if I have another dot — Dot-B somewhere around the previous dot — Dot-A, and draw a straight line between them, I have discovered One-dimension.
Similarly, I draw another line parallel to the previous line of the same length. I also draw two more lines closing the plane to form a square. (you could do a triangle as well.) This is Two-dimension.
Imagine a paper square on a table, Now I lift the square in mid-air. This drops a shadow on the table, I’ll draw imaginary lines connecting the adjacent vertices, now I have a cube. This is Three-dimension. Generally speaking, x, y, z ends here, but, wait for the fourth dimension.
Now, take this 3D cube and consider another cube and try to draw lines between the corresponding vertices. How would you do it? To make it easier, imagine a bigger cube that comprises a smaller cube within it, now it’s easier to draw the lines. We now have something called a Tesseract. So, is Tesseract a fourth dimension object? Absolutely not! It’s the shadow of a fourth dimension object in 3D. Just as the square is a 2D shadow of a cube, and a line is a 1D shadow of a square at a certain angle.
Anything more?
Every dot on a line is a singularity in itself. The ends of the diameter on a circle fall on the one-dimension. Every cross-section section of a cube is a square. All the objects in the higher dimension have a part of it in its subsequent lower dimension.
You know only at certain angles the shadow of a square becomes a straight line, the shadow of a cube gives a square, a cuboid gives a rectangle, and a sphere gives a circle. Henceforth, every 3D object cast a 2D shadow; or for every 2D object, at least one 3D object can be extrapolated.
If we go with the concept, every 3D object that we see around, might have its existence in a higher dimension? We are the impressions of our higher dimensional existence?
Stay tuned for my next story.