Thread: The Fourth Dimension

4th dimension is time.

In terms of physics there are 12 dimensions.

Misconceptions.

There are three spacial dimensions and one temporal dimension; that's four dimensions in total but to say that time is the 'next one up' from space so to speak is wrong. The OP was talking about the fourth spacial dimensions which is a different matter.

Also, virtually all realistic models of physics use 3 space dimensions and a time dimension. String theory has solutions with many more dimensions, but there is no empirical evidence for these, and there are a few different numbers of dimensions possible.

No, no.

I mean spacial dimensions.

I know about the fourth and fifth dimensions.

We move freely along three axses, one direction along a fourth, and stay rooted in a single spot on a fifth, and so on.

What I mean is, what is the purpose of a hypercube? You can't draw it, and you can't make it. So what is it used for?

And yes, I get the basic idea-- A cube made of an infinite amount of cubes stacked together.

I don't know what you mean by the fifth dimension.

The hypercube is a bit of pure maths really; just geometry. As with most pure maths it is initially created out of curiousity, but eventually such things almost always find applications in the real world. As ninja said, for example, multiple spacial dimensions may be a route to a theory of everything.

It's not completely impossible to visualise a hypercube, by the way. Here's how I do it;

Imagine a point which is separated into two points with a line between them.

Then imagine this line is then separated into a two lines with two new lines between the end points of the lines; a square.

Imagine this square separating into two squares, with four new lines connecting the corners; a cube.

Finally imagine the cube separating in two, each corner connected to the identical corner of the new cube, just as before.

You've created 8 (connecting) + 12 (new cube) new lines and 8 new corners, so in total your tesseact has 32 edges and 16 corners. Which is correct.

Lolwut.

That's a false 3D projection of something impossible to draw.

That isn't a spacial impossibility, just a projection.

I mean really drawing a hypercube.

It's a 2D projection onto your monitor...

It is not impossible to draw a 4D object on a 2D surface, you just loose some perspective. Exactly as it is not impossible to draw a 3D object on a 2D surface.