THE FOURTH DIMENSION SIMPLY EXPLAINED

88

by which may be derived an abstract conception of some of the elementary properties of a body in four-dimensional space. To be consistent, we must proceed with the same care with which an astronomer would try to people a remote planet. While considering conditions which make life possible in his own sphere, he would make specific modifications in order to bring it into complete harmony with the new environments. Although the practical representations of lines and points have appreciable size in all directions, we should not forget that in our discussion these are abstract not forget that in our discussion these are abstract terms, the latter having only position, and the former, merely a distance between any two positions. In like manner, a surface is imaginary, independent in space, or forming a terminating plane of a body. It is devoid of thickness to such an extent that were an infinite number to be placed one upon the other the aggregate would still have no thickness. We will consider, first, the limitations in the perceptions of beings in a world of one dimension, that is,
Page 173 existence in an infinite path through space, some portion of which may be represented by the line AB (Fig 1). We will suppose that at various points in this path, separated from each other, creatures a , b , and c are in progress, a representing a point, b a creature having length, and c a creature similar to b but longer. This variety of form is apparent to us because our experience is gained through observing these objects from without the plane of their existence. To the creature a , however, b is merely a point like itself, and to b , c is also a point. This arises from the fact that,

Figure 1
having knowledge only of distance and location in their own path, anything requiring a realization of a third quality would be lost to them. Creature a observing b in the figure would see him as a point, because he sees only the end of b. Suppose the bodies, a, b, and c continued in their relative positions to one another throughout their entire existence, each would then, through his restricted knowledge of the other, be forced to different conclusions regarding the form of life outside his own. Now a, conscious of his own existence as a point and observing b as a point, would erroneously though logically, conclude that all life existed in point bodies. Creature b, upon seeing a and c as points, and being conscious of his own length, would at once
Page 174 conclude that he was especially favored by the Creator above his fellow-beings, apart from the ordinary course of nature.

In Fig. 1, we employed any line, or path in space, but to avoid complications in succeeding diagrams, we shall adopt the straight line. A terminated line may be considered as a path of a point in space, bounded by its initial and final positions. The terminated straight line is the

Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com