would two-dimensional creatures make of a three-dimensional world that they could not exactly see . For example if a sphere passed through Flatland , they would see a series of disks that grew in size and then decreased in size , shrinking to zero . They wouldn ’ t directly see the sphere but they would see a series of disks that added up to a sphere . Similarly we can imagine a sphere of a four-dimensional world as series of spheres that grew in size and then decreased in size , shrinking to zero size . We wouldn ’ t see it directly as a four-dimensional sphere but we would see “ slices .” We can also imagine projections or holograms to help to visualize .
photo : NASA
Where are these dimensions exactly ? Here with us , inside us , surpassing us , outside the Earth …?
M . M .
L . R .
Dimensions are in some sense an abstract thing describing space . The number of dimensions is the number of quantities you have to specify to locate an object . If there are three dimensions , we would need three — longitude , latitude , and altitude . If there are more dimensions we would need more . So yes dimensions are everywhere . They are part of our description of space .
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would two-dimensional creatures make of a three-dimensional world that they could not exactly see . For example if a sphere passed through Flatland , they would see a series of disks that grew in size and then decreased in size , shrinking to zero . They wouldn ’ t directly see the sphere but they would see a series of disks that added up to a sphere . Similarly we can imagine a sphere of a four-dimensional world as series of spheres that grew in size and then decreased in size , shrinking to zero size . We wouldn ’ t see it directly as a four-dimensional sphere but we would see “ slices .” We can also imagine projections or holograms to help to visualize .
photo : NASA
Where are these dimensions exactly ? Here with us , inside us , surpassing us , outside the Earth …?
M . M .
L . R .
Dimensions are in some sense an abstract thing describing space . The number of dimensions is the number of quantities you have to specify to locate an object . If there are three dimensions , we would need three — longitude , latitude , and altitude . If there are more dimensions we would need more . So yes dimensions are everywhere . They are part of our description of space .