The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained: A Collection of Essays by Henry P. Manning

Author:Henry P. Manning [Manning, Henry P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486438894
Amazon: 0486438899
Barnesnoble: 0486438899
Goodreads: 724608
Publisher: Electronic Text Center. University of Virginia Library.
Published: 2000-08-01T05:00:00+00:00

X. DIFFICULTIES IN IMAGINING THE FOURTH DIMENSION. BY “A DWELLER IN THREE DIMENSIONS.” (MRS. ELIZABETH BROWN DAVIS, WASHINGTON, D. C. ).

We live in space of three dimensions. We call these three dimensions length, breadth, and thickness. For example, a line has length, but no breadth or thickness. A square has length and breadth, but no thickness. A cube has all three—length, breadth, and thickness. All the objects which we touch and use have these three dimensions, no more and no less.

Even when we say that a line has length, but no breadth or thickness, in reality we have to exercise our imagination to picture a line absolutely devoid of breadth or thickness. In practice, if we attempted to make such an object of only one dimension, which we could pick up and handle, the nearest approach to it that we could make would be an extremely fine rod or wire, but the most finely attenuated wire that could possibly be manufactured would evidently have some breadth and some thickness, though they might be extremely minute.

If we attempt to manufacture a surface having two dimensions, length and breadth, but no thickness, we will find it equally impossible. Some of the metals are capable of being rolled into extremely thin sheets, but it would not be true to say that they have no thickness at all. We may speak of the surface of a sheet of paper, but we cannot separate this surface from the paper without taking away some of the thickness with it.

Hence we see that the objects with which we are surrounded on all sides and which we constantly use, all have three dimensions. Our own bodies have three dimensions, and we live in a world of three dimensions. The notion of three dimensions is one of our inherent ideas, bequeathed to us by our earliest ancestors. Hence it is difficult for us to conceive the possibility of a world in which there are either more or less than three dimensions.

It is possible, however, to picture in the imagination a world of two, or even of only one dimension, because to do so, it is only necessary to take away, in imagination, from known objects, a portion of themselves, that is, one or two of their known dimensions, and to picture their appearance as it would be under those conditions.

On the other hand, to picture in the imagination a world of four dimensions, or even one object of four dimensions, requires that we add to three dimensions already known, other parts about which we know nothing whatever. It is obviously much easier to imagine a known object stripped of some of its known parts, but whose remaining parts are also known, than it is to imagine that same known object, with all of its known parts intact, and increased by other parts which are entirely unknown, and about which we have no information to guide us.

Moreover, we have no good reason for supposing that a world of four dimensions does anywhere exist.

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