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.