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Four-dimensional space
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A four-dimensional space (4D) is a mathematical
extension of the concept of three-dimensional or 3D
space. Three-dimensional space is the simplest
possible abstraction of the observation that one only
needs three numbers, called dimensions, to
describe the sizes or locations of objects in the
everyday world. For example, the volume of a
rectangular box is found by measuring and
multiplying its length, width, and height (often
labeled x, y, and z).
The 4D equivalent of a cube is known as
a tesseract, seen rotating here in four-
dimensional space, yet projected into
two dimensions for display.
The idea of adding a fourth dimension began with
Jean le Rond d'Alembert's "Dimensions" published
in 1754,[1][2] was followed by Joseph-Louis Lagrange
in the mid-1700s, and culminated in a precise
formalization of the concept in 1854 by Bernhard
Riemann. In 1880, Charles Howard Hinton
popularized these insights in an essay titled "What is
the Fourth Dimension?", which explained the
concept of a "four-dimensional cube" with a step-
by-step generalization of the properties of lines,
squares, and cubes. The simplest form of Hinton's
method is to draw two ordinary 3D cubes in 2D
space, one encompassing the other, separated by
an "unseen" distance, and then draw lines between
their equivalent vertices. This can be seen in the
accompanying animation whenever it shows a
smaller inner cube inside a larger outer cube. The
eight lines connecting the vertices of the two cubes
in this case represent a single direction in the
"unseen" fourth dimension.
Higher-dimensional spaces (i.e., greater than three)
have since become one of the foundations for
formally expressing modern mathematics and
physics. Large parts of these topics could not exist
in their current forms without the use of such
spaces. Einstein's concept of spacetime uses such a
4D space, though it has a Minkowski structure that
is slightly more complicated than Euclidean 4D
space.
Single locations in 4D space can be given as vectors
or n-tuples, i.e. as ordered lists of numbers such as
(x, y, z, w). It is only when such locations are linked
together into more complicated shapes that the full
richness and geometric complexity of higher-
dimensional spaces emerge. A hint to that
complexity can be seen in the accompanying 2D
animation of one of the simplest possible 4D
objects, the tesseract (equivalent to the 3D cube;
see also hypercube).
History
Vectors
Orthogonality and vocabulary
Geometry
Cognition
Dimensional analogy
See also
References
Further reading
External links
Last edited 2 months ago by AnomieBOT
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