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Saturday, April 23

Dimensions


                A couple of weeks ago I posted a video my friend showed me that I’m sure none of you watched, so here it is again: http://pogpog.com/v/fourth-dimension-explained/.  This time I’m actually going to explain the concept so if you’re too lazy to watch Carl Segan explain the Fourth-Dimension I’ll so it for you.
                Imagine a world where everything is entirely flat. Not just flat but literally one-hundred percent flat. No height whatsoever. In this flat land of course everybody knows about left and right, but will never understand up and down because to them, it doesn’t exist. Obviously we know about up/down because we live in a three-dimensional world (Length, Width, and Height), but these flat people do not; they live in only two dimensions (Width and Length).
                Let’s pause here for a second. Many people do not want to believe that there is a fourth dimension because they don’t know “where would it be?!” Well the answer is simple: We can never know. Just as these flat people have no idea where up and down is, we could never know where a fourth dimension is. We are only familiar with up, down, left, right, forward, and backwards. We don’t know if there’s some other direction because we don’t exist in a world where that other direction is possible.
                Segan goes on to say what would happen if a three-dimensional object visited Flat-land. His example is an apple. So Mr. Apple floats above a certain square in Flat-Land and tries to speak to him. The square has no idea where the voice comes because there’s nobody in front of him, nobody to his left, nobody to his right, and nobody behind him. In fact, to him, the voice seems to be coming from inside of him.
                So let’s pause here again for an explanation to why the voice would seem to come from inside of him. Because the Apple is floating above Square, a direction that does not exist, his voice seems to come from whatever is below him on flatland. Square obviously cannot just hear a voice in another dimension and look up at it, because it’s not a direction his world allows him to look at.
                So Apple decides to come down and visit Flat-land. He finds that he’s able to move directly through it. And this makes sense because there will be no boundaries to his dimension in Flat-land. As he moves through Flat-land, all that will be visible to the flat people will be small cross-sections of him at a time; never will they be able to see the entire image of Apple at one time.
                Finally in frustration Apple picks up Square and drops him from up high in the air. As Square falls he thinks to himself “Wow! Never have I seen such! I can see everything from here! I must be somewhere never heard of!” Then with a loud thud he suddenly appears back in Flat-land. He doesn’t fall into Flat-land, just appears, because after all, they are entirely flat and unable to see anything above “flat”. So his friends all run up to greet him and ask him where he went. Square of course will say he went somewhere new and unheard of, possibly another dimension. His friends all ask him to show where it is, which of course Square is unable to do because in his world there is no up or down.
                This may be a little hard for some people to grasp, but for me it made sense and tells me that there is no way to completely rule out another dimension. Or, in fact, MANY dimensions. If I recall correctly, some scientists believe there are as many as 11 dimensions.
                This video proposes the Fourth Dimension is time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY_ZgAvXsuw, then goes on to explain up to the tenth dimension. Dimensions past three are something we will NEVER be able to fully grasp.
                Here’s a video that vaguely describes the basics of String Theory if you’re curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npgcupieoag&feature=related. So yes, I have been pillaging Youtube of its many videos to try and best explain myself.
                So let me bring up something else: a higher power.  I don’t feel like explaining my views, because I don’t want them to influence yours, but if we cannot grasp even a Fourth Dimension entirely, how can we say for sure there is no God? What if a being existed in, say, the eleventh dimension? To them, everything would exist as just a point in its world. It would be omnipresent, all powerful, and when it talked, it would seem like it talked out of things in our universe (i.e. a burning bush), just as when the apple talked it seemed to come from inside Square.  And if it decided to pick somebody up and shove them into its universe for a second, that someone would be able to see into the future, the past, and see anything about the world he wanted until he came crashing back into his dimension. He would of course have no way to explain his visions entirely, but he could write about what he saw in, say, a Bible.
                What are your thoughts? Or do you even care to try and wrap your puny three-dimensional brain around the eleventh dimension? It certainly makes it hurt.

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