The 4th Dimension

The clip that Mr.Lynn had posted about Carl Sagan explaining the 4th dimension has really opened many doors for me. But to comprehend such a dense subject, I had to do a lot of deep thinking on this topic. Now I feel I should do my best to share my understanding of the mysteries of the 4th dimension to everyone else.

Now first of all, before I begin, I must state that all the ideas regarding the 4th dimension are strictly theoretical, none of this can actually be proven. Now, let's start with an easy example, which we can use to extrapolate information towards the real situation. Pretend that right now, everything was in a 2D plane. The only existent shapes are completely flat and without depth. Our main character, Bob, is a square who lives in a completely flat house. Each and every morning he wakes up and talks to his circle and triangle friends. However, things begin to get weird. One day, an apple comes to visit. The apple is situated above the plane and looks down at the flat shapes interacting amongst themselves. The apple is feeling outgoing, so he decides to talk to the square and his friends, so he descends onto the plane. However, since the apple is in 3D, only a cross section of him could be seen on the plane at a given instance in time. As the apple descends through the plane, Bob and his friends notice a changing shape, but they cannot comprehend the apple, as it has a depth which does not exist in their plane of existance.

Now let's go back to our 3D space. Imagine that our space is similar to that of the 2D plane, and that there is some sort of depth in our world that we cannot comprehend. The things that happen day to day are just slices of this thing with depth we cannot comprehend, just like how the square and his friends cannot comprehend the depth of the 3D apple. Scientists and theorists define this unknown depth as time. As we know, the existence of time has a definite influence on our lives, but time is ultimately an incomprehensible concept that we cannot fathom. It is exactly according to Kurt Vonnegut, that we are all "stuck in the amber of this moment." In Slaughter House 5, the Tralfmadorians seem to be masters of the 4D concept. They understand that every moment is independent of others. Assuming these theories about the 4th dimension to be true, there may be some means to Vonnegut's madness.

Now I have done my best to try to explain the 4th dimension to you, but it may very well be still difficult to comprehend. Don't worry. Take a moment to think about everything that we talked about, and try to wrap your brain around this topic. Have fun : )