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Contents
1 History
2 Vectors
3 Orthogonality and vocabulary
4 Geometry
o 4.1 Hypersphere
5 Cognition
6 Dimensional analogy
7 Cross-sections
o 7.1 Projections
o 7.2 Shadows
o 7.3 Bounding volumes
o 7.4 Visual scope
o 7.5 Limitations
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
History [edit]
See also: n-dimensional space#History
The possibility of spaces with dimensions higher than three was first studied by
mathematicians in the 19th century. In 1827 Mbius realized that a fourth dimension would
allow a three-dimensional form to be rotated onto its mirror-image,[1] and by 1853 Ludwig
Schlfli had discovered many polytopes in higher dimensions, although his work was not
published until after his death.[2] Higher dimensions were soon put on firm footing by
Bernhard Riemann's 1854 Habilitationsschrift, ber die Hypothesen welche der Geometrie
zu Grunde liegen, in which he considered a "point" to be any sequence of coordinates (x1,
..., xn). The possibility of geometry in higher dimensions, including four dimensions in
particular, was thus established.
An arithmetic of four dimensions called quaternions was defined by William Rowan
Hamilton in 1843. This associative algebra was the source of the science of vector analysis
in three dimensions as recounted in A History of Vector Analysis.
One of the first major expositors of the fourth dimension was Charles Howard Hinton,
starting in 1880 with his essay What is the Fourth Dimension?; published in the Dublin
University magazine.[3] He coined the terms tesseract, ana and kata in his book A New Era
of Thought, and introduced a method for visualising the fourth dimension using cubes in the
book Fourth Dimension.[4][5]
In 1908, Hermann Minkowski presented a paper[6] consolidating the role of time as the
fourth dimension of spacetime, the basis for Einstein's theories of special and general
relativity.[7] But the geometry of spacetime, being non-Euclidean, is profoundly different
from that popularised by Hinton. The study of such Minkowski spaces required new
mathematics quite different from that of four-dimensional Euclidean space, and so
developed along quite different lines. This separation was less clear in the popular
imagination, with works of fiction and philosophy blurring the distinction, so in 1973 H. S.
M. Coxeter felt compelled to write:
Vectors [edit]
Mathematically four-dimensional space is simply a space with four spatial dimensions, that
is a space that needs four parameters to specify a point in it. For example a general point
might have position vector a, equal to
This can be written in terms of the four standard basis vectors (e1, e2, e3, e4), given by
As an example, the distance squared between the points (0,0,0,0) and (1,1,1,0) is 3 in both
the Euclidean and Minkowskian 4-spaces, while the distance squared between (0,0,0,0) and
(1,1,1,1) is 4 in Euclidean space and 2 in Minkowski space; increasing actually
decreases the metric distance. This leads to many of the well known apparent "paradoxes"
of relativity.
The cross product is not defined in four dimensions. Instead the exterior product is used for
some applications, and is defined as follows:
This is bivector valued, with bivectors in four dimensions forming a six-dimensional linear
space with basis (e12, e13, e14, e23, e24, e34). They can be used to generate rotations in four
dimensions.
Geometry [edit]
See also: Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space
The geometry of 4-dimensional space is much more complex than that of 3-dimensional
space, due to the extra degree of freedom.
5-cell
tesseract
16-cell
24-cell
120-cell
600-cell
Hypersphere [edit]
Stereographic projection of a Clifford torus: the set of points (cos(a), sin(a), cos(b), sin(b)),
which is a subset of the 3-sphere.
The set of points in Euclidean 4-space having the same distance R from a fixed point P0
forms a hypersurface known as a 3-sphere. The hyper-volume of the enclosed space is:
Cognition [edit]
Research using virtual reality finds that humans in spite of living in a three-dimensional
world can without special practice make spatial judgments based on the length of, and
angle between, line segments embedded in four-dimensional space.[11] The researchers
noted that "the participants in our study had minimal practice in these tasks, and it remains
an open question whether it is possible to obtain more sustainable, definitive, and richer 4D
representations with increased perceptual experience in 4D virtual environments."[11] In
another study,[12] the ability of humans to orient themselves in 2D, 3D and 4D mazes has
been tested. Each maze consisted of four path segments of random length and connected
with orthogonal random bends, but without branches or loops (i.e. actually labyrinths). The
graphical interface was based on John McIntosh's free 4D Maze game.[13] The participating
persons had to navigate through the path and finally estimate the linear direction back to the
starting point. The researchers found that some of the participants were able to mentally
integrate their path after some practice in 4D (the lower dimensional cases were for
comparison and for the participants to learn the method).
A net of a tesseract
To understand the nature of four-dimensional space, a device called dimensional analogy is
commonly employed. Dimensional analogy is the study of how (n 1) dimensions relate to
n dimensions, and then inferring how n dimensions would relate to (n + 1) dimensions.[14]
Dimensional analogy was used by Edwin Abbott Abbott in the book Flatland, which
narrates a story about a square that lives in a two-dimensional world, like the surface of a
piece of paper. From the perspective of this square, a three-dimensional being has
seemingly god-like powers, such as ability to remove objects from a safe without breaking
it open (by moving them across the third dimension), to see everything that from the twodimensional perspective is enclosed behind walls, and to remain completely invisible by
standing a few inches away in the third dimension.
By applying dimensional analogy, one can infer that a four-dimensional being would be
capable of similar feats from our three-dimensional perspective. Rudy Rucker illustrates
this in his novel Spaceland, in which the protagonist encounters four-dimensional beings
who demonstrate such powers.
Cross-sections [edit]
As a three-dimensional object passes through a two-dimensional plane, a two-dimensional
being would only see a cross-section of the three-dimensional object. For example, if a
balloon passed through a sheet of paper, a being on the paper would see a circle gradually
grow larger, then smaller again. Similarly, if a four-dimensional object passed through
three-dimensions, we would see a three-dimensional cross-section of the four-dimensional
objectfor example, a sphere.[15]
Projections [edit]
A useful application of dimensional analogy in visualizing the fourth dimension is in
projection. A projection is a way for representing an n-dimensional object in n 1
dimensions. For instance, computer screens are two-dimensional, and all the photographs of
Tesseract
Description
The image on the left is a cube viewed
face-on. The analogous viewpoint of
the tesseract in 4 dimensions is the cellfirst perspective projection, shown on
the right. One may draw an analogy
between the two: just as the cube
projects to a square, the tesseract
projects to a cube.
Note that the other 5 faces of the cube
are not seen here. They are obscured by
the visible face. Similarly, the other 7
cells of the tesseract are not seen here
because they are obscured by the
visible cell.
The image on the left shows the same
cube viewed edge-on. The analogous
viewpoint of a tesseract is the face-first
perspective projection, shown on the
right. Just as the edge-first projection of
the cube consists of two trapezoids, the
face-first projection of the tesseract
Shadows [edit]
A concept closely related to projection is the casting of shadows.
Limitations [edit]
Reasoning by analogy from familiar lower dimensions can be an excellent intuitive guide,
but care must be exercised not to accept results that are not more rigorously tested. For
example, consider the formulas for the circumference of a circle
and the surface
area of a sphere:
. One might be tempted to suppose that the surface volume of
a hypersphere is
, or perhaps
, but either of these would be wrong.
[8]
The correct formula is
.
Euclidean space
Euclidean geometry
4-manifold
Exotic R4
Fourth dimension in art
Dimension
Four-dimensionalism
Fifth dimension
Sixth dimension
Polychoron
Polytope
List of geometry topics
Block Theory of the Universe
Flatland, a book by Edwin A. Abbott about two- and three-dimensional spaces, to
understand the concept of four dimensions
References [edit]
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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10.
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15.
4D Euclidean space
4D Building Blocks - Interactive game to explore 4D space
4DNav - A small tool to view a 4D space as four 3D space uses ADSODA
algorithm
MagicCube 4D A 4-dimensional analog of traditional Rubik's Cube.
Frame-by-frame animations of 4D - 3D analogies
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Dimension
Dimensional spaces
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Hyperplane
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Cross-polytope
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Cartesian coordinates
Linear algebra
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Conformal geometry
Reflection
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Plane of rotation
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Multi-dimensional geometry
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