[Huck]

No matter how they try, no one can explain 4 dimensions in a way that I can understand. The loaf of bread metaphor doesn't cut it (har har).

[Sgt_Schultze]

I'm guessing "thetan levels" aren't going to be discussed.

[avacado]

--- No matter how they try, no one can explain 4 dimensions in a way that I can understand. The loaf of bread metaphor doesn't cut it (har har).---

Which 4 dimensions? 4 dimensions of space, or 4 dimensions of: 3 dimensions of space plus 1 dimension of time.

[geopyg]

Four dimensions is easy. Meet me on the 5th floor at Main Street and Second Avenue at 3 pm today and I'll tell you all about it.

Five dimensions (of which the ARTICLE speaks) is beyond me! I seem to recall a high-school report where I had a duplicated a drawing that somehow represented the numerous (27??) dimensions that Einstein somehow figured there are???!!

[DoughtyOne]

Try this Huck. The tree dimensions are up, down and depth.

Think of it as a cube. As you leave the cube the length, bredth and depth are frozen to you. In actuality that cube remains active, you just aren't aware of it.

Now move to a different cube that will be unfrozen to you when you arrive.

The first cube was the present. The second cube could be any time other than the present. The movement between cubes would be via the forth dimension.

Perhaps you and others will disagree that this describes the the four dimensions in an understandable way. It does for me.

[Conservative4Ever]

The loaf of bread metaphor doesn't cut it (har har).

What's the loaf of bread metaphor?

[PackerBronco]

No matter how they try, no one can explain 4 dimensions in a way that I can understand.

Hmmmm how dimensions are there in a line? one. Now imagine that line is a phone line. From distance it still appears one dimensional but if you get close, you see that it's actually three dimensional with the 2nd and 3rd dimensions wrapped around it. That's an analogy to the idea that the 4th and 5th spatial dimensions are wrapped tightly within and around 3rd dimensional space, but you have to get down to the sub-quantum level to "see" it.

[evets]

[ridesthemiles]

No matter how they try, no one can explain 4 dimensions in a way that I can understand""

Me either...but I find all this stuff fascinating..

[RadioAstronomer]

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Hypercube.html

http://keycurriculumpress.com/sketchpad/javasketchpad/gallery/pages/hypercube.php

http://www.astronomycafe.net/cosm/dimens.html

http://www-geo.phys.ualberta.ca/saig/conf/Bin_seg04.pdf

[Maceman]

No matter how they try, no one can explain 4 dimensions in a way that I can understand. The loaf of bread metaphor doesn't cut it (har har).

Have you ever read Flatland?

[muir_redwoods]

"No matter how they try, no one can explain 4 dimensions in a way that I can understand. The loaf of bread metaphor doesn't cut it (har har)."

Try this. A point is a "no-dimensional" object. A line is a one-dimensional object, a square is a two-dimensional object and a cube is a three-dimentional object.

Now, the point is the shadow of the line if the line is viewed end-on. The line is the shadow of the square edge-on and the square is the shadow of the cube.

Q. The cube is the shadow of what?

A. A four dimensional object