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Time has been set-aside during the second week for you to give a short (5-minute) but serious talk to the 16 students in your group on a topic related to science. Select your topic and prepare the talk before you leave home since time is very tight.
So. I just scribbled out a 5-minute speech on the fourth dimension and hyperspace within about half an hour. Thank God I have all these science books sitting on my bookshelf.
The Fourth Dimension
As soon as mathematicians started dividing our universe into dimensions, they also had to consider just how many there could be. Aristotle, who lived around 350 BC, said
“The line has magnitude in one way, the plane in two ways, and the solid in three ways, and beyond these there is no other magnitude because the three are all.”
He dismissed the idea that there could be anything but these three dimensions. The idea of the fourth dimension is not something that has been around for a long time – it dates back to around the 1800s. It has been the subject of hundreds of science-fiction movies, stories and speculative essays, a serious topic studied by physicists and mathematicians, and even something pondered by theologians and philosophers. I even have a friend who has been insisting for many years that the fourth dimension is chocolate.
The religious viewpoint on this topic is hardly scientific, so I shall cover it minimally. Basically, the idea is that the fourth dimension is that in which our souls exist, and which contains God, heaven and hell.
One of the most commonly accepted and popular ideas is that the fourth dimension is time. It certainly seems to fit the bill, at least on the surface – something’s position is defined using the three spatial dimensions, but surely it is also possible to consider that thing’s position in time? The problem with this theory is that we know it is possible to travel in our three familiar dimensions, but so far – outside of again, books and movies – it is impossible for us to travel in time. With the introduction of new ideas such as wormholes, this barrier is slowly becoming one that we may one day be able to pass – but for now, time is the one thing humans cannot change.
However, things start to get interesting once you introduce the idea of a fourth spatial dimension – that is, we have width, length and depth… and one other. Many mathematicians have devoted large amounts of time to this idea, and just trying to get your head around the concept can prove very difficult. Consider something like an ant whose world is, for basic purposes, two-dimensional. It may move on a curved surface, but it still has only two of what we call ‘degrees of freedom’. Even allowing for the severely limited intelligence of insects, to a creature whose existence is defined by forward, backwards, left and right, the concepts of up and down would be mind-boggling. We humans are three-dimensional beings, and so a fourth dimension is something that our brains have trouble accepting. Henri Poincaré, a French mathematician, said;
“A man who devoted his life to it could perhaps succeed in picturing himself a fourth dimension.”
So – what would a fourth dimension look like? Don’t try and imagine it straight away. With a difficult mental exercise like this, it’s best to start with something simple and work your way up logically. First consider this – a single dot, a theoretical point, has zero dimensions. It can divide a one-dimensional line into two equal parts. Similarly, a line can divide a two-dimensional plane into two equal parts. And a plane can cut a three-dimensional solid. Continuing this train of thought, a four-dimensional hyperspace would have to be something that a solid would divide into two. Obviously, that doesn’t mean much in itself, but it is processes like this that help mathematicians set down rules for what a fourth dimension would be like.
Now consider the power that we, as three-dimensional beings, have over the ant I mentioned earlier. Say you enclosed that ant within four lines that would seem, to him, to be secure, and put another flat object in with him. A human could make that object disappear simply by lifting it up – by moving it into the third dimension. Think about the implications, then, for a four-dimensional being, or someone able to utilise the fourth dimension. What would appear to us to be a securely locked safe could be robbed in an instant, simply by removing its contents to the fourth dimension. ‘Closed-heart’ surgery could be performed, where the heart is removed without even breaking the skin. Such beings would indeed seem like Gods to us – but this is where the paths of theology and physics cross, which is always dangerous ground.
Taking this into account, it does build quite a case for time as the fourth dimension. Just think – if someone could move freely in time, feats like that would be possible. Things could be seen to disappear in front of our eyes if someone can remove them in time. Even Harry Potter has a lot to say about the possibilities when you can move around in the so-called dimension of time.
Despite enormous amounts of research, there is only so much we can discover about alternate dimensions. There could very well be a fourth – and why stop there? A fifth, a sixth… just because we are unable to visualize them doesn’t mean they couldn’t exist. Suffice it to say that any journeys that humans make into these alternate realities will be very interesting indeed, considering our limitations. As said by one of my personal science heroes – Han Solo, of Star Wars fame;
“Traveling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, boy.”
But we’ll have to wait until our knowledge becomes advanced enough that travels in hyperspace become possible. Maybe someday the ant will grow wings.
I wonder if I missed anything else vital like that on the NYSF website. Eeep.
My legs hurt. I blame DDR.
So. I just scribbled out a 5-minute speech on the fourth dimension and hyperspace within about half an hour. Thank God I have all these science books sitting on my bookshelf.
The Fourth Dimension
As soon as mathematicians started dividing our universe into dimensions, they also had to consider just how many there could be. Aristotle, who lived around 350 BC, said
“The line has magnitude in one way, the plane in two ways, and the solid in three ways, and beyond these there is no other magnitude because the three are all.”
He dismissed the idea that there could be anything but these three dimensions. The idea of the fourth dimension is not something that has been around for a long time – it dates back to around the 1800s. It has been the subject of hundreds of science-fiction movies, stories and speculative essays, a serious topic studied by physicists and mathematicians, and even something pondered by theologians and philosophers. I even have a friend who has been insisting for many years that the fourth dimension is chocolate.
The religious viewpoint on this topic is hardly scientific, so I shall cover it minimally. Basically, the idea is that the fourth dimension is that in which our souls exist, and which contains God, heaven and hell.
One of the most commonly accepted and popular ideas is that the fourth dimension is time. It certainly seems to fit the bill, at least on the surface – something’s position is defined using the three spatial dimensions, but surely it is also possible to consider that thing’s position in time? The problem with this theory is that we know it is possible to travel in our three familiar dimensions, but so far – outside of again, books and movies – it is impossible for us to travel in time. With the introduction of new ideas such as wormholes, this barrier is slowly becoming one that we may one day be able to pass – but for now, time is the one thing humans cannot change.
However, things start to get interesting once you introduce the idea of a fourth spatial dimension – that is, we have width, length and depth… and one other. Many mathematicians have devoted large amounts of time to this idea, and just trying to get your head around the concept can prove very difficult. Consider something like an ant whose world is, for basic purposes, two-dimensional. It may move on a curved surface, but it still has only two of what we call ‘degrees of freedom’. Even allowing for the severely limited intelligence of insects, to a creature whose existence is defined by forward, backwards, left and right, the concepts of up and down would be mind-boggling. We humans are three-dimensional beings, and so a fourth dimension is something that our brains have trouble accepting. Henri Poincaré, a French mathematician, said;
“A man who devoted his life to it could perhaps succeed in picturing himself a fourth dimension.”
So – what would a fourth dimension look like? Don’t try and imagine it straight away. With a difficult mental exercise like this, it’s best to start with something simple and work your way up logically. First consider this – a single dot, a theoretical point, has zero dimensions. It can divide a one-dimensional line into two equal parts. Similarly, a line can divide a two-dimensional plane into two equal parts. And a plane can cut a three-dimensional solid. Continuing this train of thought, a four-dimensional hyperspace would have to be something that a solid would divide into two. Obviously, that doesn’t mean much in itself, but it is processes like this that help mathematicians set down rules for what a fourth dimension would be like.
Now consider the power that we, as three-dimensional beings, have over the ant I mentioned earlier. Say you enclosed that ant within four lines that would seem, to him, to be secure, and put another flat object in with him. A human could make that object disappear simply by lifting it up – by moving it into the third dimension. Think about the implications, then, for a four-dimensional being, or someone able to utilise the fourth dimension. What would appear to us to be a securely locked safe could be robbed in an instant, simply by removing its contents to the fourth dimension. ‘Closed-heart’ surgery could be performed, where the heart is removed without even breaking the skin. Such beings would indeed seem like Gods to us – but this is where the paths of theology and physics cross, which is always dangerous ground.
Taking this into account, it does build quite a case for time as the fourth dimension. Just think – if someone could move freely in time, feats like that would be possible. Things could be seen to disappear in front of our eyes if someone can remove them in time. Even Harry Potter has a lot to say about the possibilities when you can move around in the so-called dimension of time.
Despite enormous amounts of research, there is only so much we can discover about alternate dimensions. There could very well be a fourth – and why stop there? A fifth, a sixth… just because we are unable to visualize them doesn’t mean they couldn’t exist. Suffice it to say that any journeys that humans make into these alternate realities will be very interesting indeed, considering our limitations. As said by one of my personal science heroes – Han Solo, of Star Wars fame;
“Traveling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, boy.”
But we’ll have to wait until our knowledge becomes advanced enough that travels in hyperspace become possible. Maybe someday the ant will grow wings.
I wonder if I missed anything else vital like that on the NYSF website. Eeep.
My legs hurt. I blame DDR.