THE FOURTH DIMENSION SIMPLY EXPLAINED

94

With the square as base, construct a cube (Fig. 3). It is a three-dimensional figure. The third direction is at right angles to the other two, or to any line in the plane. The cube is bounded by six squares; the three-dimensional figure is bounded by six two-dimensional figures. It has twelve bounding lines and eight corners. The cube is formed by lifting the square upward from the surface to a height equal to its length or breadth.

Figures 3 and 4
If we could move the cube in a fourth direction, at right angles to all its sides, we should form a four-dimensional figure. By analogy, it would be bounded by eight three-dimensional figures (cubes), and would have twenty-four square sides, thirty-two bounding lines, and sixteen points. (C. H. Hinton calls it a "tesseract.") We can represent a three-dimensional figure, like a cube, on a two-dimensional surface, like paper. It is just as easy to represent the new four-dimensional figure on the two-dimensional surface of the paper. Beginning at the point A (Fig. 4), we draw, first,
Page 184 AB, a one-dimensional figure. Next, ABCD, a two-dimensional figure, AD being at right angles to AB. Third, the three-dimensional cube, AG; its new direction, AE, being at right angles to both AB and AD.

Now, let AJ represent a new direction, at right angles to all three directions, AB, AD and AK. This will be the fourth direction or dimension. We can complete the figure as before. This is a true picture of a four-dimensional figure represented on a surface: that is, in space of two dimensions. It is bounded by eight cubes, twenty-four squares, thirty-two lines and sixteen points.

Figure 5
Just as the cube was formed by moving the square upward for a distance equal to its length or breadth, so this "four dimensional cube" is formed by moving the cube for an equal distance in a new direction at right angles to all its sides. Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com