The Four Dimensions

A Brief Summary of the First Four Dimensions

Have you ever gone out and watched a “3d” movie?  What makes something “3d” in the first place? Most would say “something that is flat like paper” and while that is technically correct, it is far from the whole truth. Now first of all, there are not JUST three dimensions as a majority of people think. String theory states that there is a MINIMUM of nine dimensions and that the tenth dimension is, well….., everything. In a single point. But let's not get into that. For now, let us discuss the first and second dimensions for they are the simplest.

The first dimension is a single point. The universe would be a line in this situation. Anything in the first dimension would be on the line only capable of moving along the line, forwards or backwards. Next is the second dimension. The second dimension is one that we are all familiar with. To go from the first dimension to the second dimension, you simply add a line. An object in the second dimension would be like a dot on a coordinate plane. The two dimensions of the second dimension are length and width.

This brings us to the third dimension, which is obviously the most easy one to comprehend because the third dimension is the the one we are living in right now. The third dimension is depth. This adds another line to the two dimensional coordinate plane. Your location would be determined by latitude, longitude, and altitude, while in the second dimension there IS no altitude. Another word for the third dimension is depth. Back to our original question, what makes something “3d” in the first place, the answer would be depth. Now you could definitely state your location with just those 3 numbers, but there ARE more dimensions.

Now let us enter the fourth, and for the sake of this paper, and final dimension that we will be discussing. The fourth dimension, is time. Now you cannot really draw another line in your three line coordinate plane for the fourth dimension because the fourth dimensional line would be a timeline. A being in the fourth dimension would, theoretically, be able to move through time naturally, as easy as we are able move forwards and backwards, or side to side. The fourth dimensional being would be easier to be described as a snake. Your baby self would be at one end and your deceased self would be at the other end. Now here is something to think about. If light is shone upon a 3 dimensional object and it results in a 2 dimensional shadow, then what would happen if light was cast on a 4 dimensional object?