What and where is the fourth dimension?
113366
The 4th dimension is time. It is essentially equivalent to "flat land" falling through the 3rd dimension.
457925
Well there are 3 spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension, so there's 4 to begin with. On a macroscopic scale the universe behaves like a minkowski space. However on a microscopic scale even 4 dimensions isn't enough, the maths suggests possibly 11 or more dimensions.\n\nHowever I have a feeling you're not talking in the strictly mathematical sense. If you meant "are there other universes 'beyond' ours", then I have no idea. There are theories that suggest there are, but as far as I know there are no known observations that could answer that yet. We'll just have to wait and see what is discovered.
126328
Technically, we live in a 4 dimensional world.  The forth demension is time.  There are no actual 3, 2 and 1 dimensional worlds that you can get to, but you can see a simulated 2 dimensional world.  it's the computer screen in front of you, or a tv screen, which shows only length and width, although it can show the illusion of depth.
600049
The three dimensions they are most likely talking about are the x,y, and z planes in space. Time is the fourth dimension, and there could be more after that. read stephen hawkings book A Brief History of Time. He explains how to conceptualize dimensions in your head very well.
651638
first of all, its not NASA at all, its "String Theory", and theoretical physicists, that are proposing the existence of 11 dimensions.\nwhen we talk about 11 dimensions, we'll refer to them as 10+1, that's because it is 10 dimensions of Space, and 1 dimension of time. as you know there can only be one dimension of time. but in space we are familiar with 3 dimensions, and it is impossible to visualize space with more then 3 dimensions. so what are the other 7 dimensions? they are what we call Celabi-Yau spaces, they are microscopic dimensions that only affect objects as small as for example electrons, photons, quarks, and all other subatomic particles. even though we cannot visualize them in any way, it make perfect sense from a mathematical point of view.\n\ndo a google search on string theory, if you would like more information.
335734
I consider humans as being 4 dimensional and existing in a 4d world...unfortunately we cannot fully interact with the 4th dimension (I guess we are temporal retards)......but that aside......\n\nYour 2d and 3d examples are correct because they are both physical dimensions.\n\nHowever, a 4d observer would not be able to touch every molecule of a 3d world which he was observing........this is because the 4th dimension is temporal rather than physical....he would still have physical boundaries.\n\nHe would be able to interact with a 3d world in the same physical way as we would, but he could do it in the past or future....which we cannot unfortunately....we are stuck in our present...moving ever forward in the temporal plane.\n\nPhysically, he would also be able to interact with his 4d world in the same way as a 3d observer interacts with their 3d world (and it would simply appear normal to him).\nTemporally, he could interact with his 4d world in the same way as he could interact with a 3d world...he could travel in time, but would remain constrained by physical barriers.\n\n5d.....well.....what is your definition of the 5th dimension ?\n\nProbably somewhat different to mine !!!
646927
I believe that you mean fourth dimension. We live in the third dimension.\n\nHere's how the theory works, Imagine a piece of paper. Now imagine a race of 2 dimensional stick people living on the paper. You (living in this three dimensional reality) see one of these stick people, and you say, "hey you!" the stick man looks around, but there's no one near him on the page. You say, "Hey, I'm talking to you," and you push on the man against the paper. He feels an odd and unnerving sensation for which he has no ability to understand. You press yourself against the page, and a sort of shadow of yourself appears on the page. This is very much like the relationship which we have with beings from the other realm. Humans exist in a primarily 3 dimensional universe, but scientists predict that there are many other dimensions.Whether or not this is exactly what is going on, it feels a lot like what is going on.\n\nAs for my encounters with the paranormal, As a child the chandelier used to swing from side to side, and the radio would turn on by itself in the middle of the night.\n\nOne time on a camping trip I was walking back from the bathrooms at that moment right between day and night and I saw someone walk across the front of the site and stop behind a tree. So I figure one of the people is going to jump out and try to surprise me, so I pull out my flashlight, walk up to the tree, turn on the light, and there's no one there.\n\nOne time I was alone in a house, and I felt a presence. I looked a mobile hanging motionless, and said, "If there is anyone else here, make the mobile spin." The next moment, the mobile began to spin.\n\nOne time I was driving into Ponca State Park to set up a large camping gathering, and the sides of the road were lined with spirits. All standing there, clearly visible to everyone, calmly welcoming us back.\n\nOn another camping trip, we felt a spirit near the bon-fire. We had a ring of 40 tiki-torches around the bonfire. It was a still and windless night, but all the tiki flames near the spirit bent in. One of the people in the circle had a fancy camera. After the campout she went to get the film developed, and all the photos from before the visitor turned out, but after that all the film was blank. She took the camera in to be repaired. The repairman asked if she'd been in a nuclear power plant. All the innards were fried from electromagnetism\n\nMy grandmother died while my niece was in utero. After my niece was born, she would look up at areas where no one was standing, and laugh and giggle. We all knew that she was looking at gramma, so we never showed her any pictures. Finally, at about a year old, she could speak, and my sister showed her the family photo album. My niece picked out her photo and said, "That's Old Gramma."\n\nI do spiritual healing with singing bowls. I play the bowl in someone's hand, and feel the vibrations as they extend through the person, and can tell them where the vibrations are and what they're doing.\n\nI used to work with a Reiki master who could tell people many details about their lives while we were doing our energy work. Very specific things\n\nOne time on a camping trip, we created a psychic link which allowed us to keep tabs on each other without needing those family band radios.\n\nOne time, while engaging in on-line activities, a witch and I played a game of "where am I touching you" and we were able to correctly identify where and how the other person was touching from thousands of miles apart over IM
983939
The problem with detecting the fifth dimension (or the sixth, seventh, and so on, it is believed there are 11) is that our bodies are built to measure only the three old-fashioned spatial dimensions, plus time as a fourth dimension.\n\nScientists have been hoping that at least one of the extra dimensions might be rolled up in such a way that its influence could be seen by measuring gravity's pull on a scale of, say, a millimeter or less. So far, no anomalies have been officially reported, although there have been occasional blips that are likely due to tiny experimental errors rather than the fifth dimension.
326353
Some physicists estimate as many as 12 dimensions. \nAbsolutely there's a spiritual dimension that we can not see as long as we dwell in the flesh.
1134654
We observe four dimensions everyday, three spatial and time.\nTime is called a dimension because it makes mathematical sense to do so. \nBut...theories such as string theory predict that the space we live in has in fact many more dimensions (frequently 10, 11 or 26), but that the universe measured along these additional dimensions is subatomic in size. As a result, we perceive only the three spatial dimensions that have macroscopic size.\n\nThis is not so strange as it sounds, which I'll show with an example. Imagine you are in an airplane, flying over sea. Seen from a height, the sea looks flat, two-dimensional. But when the plane looses height we start to perceive the waves, that move in a third direction we could see before.\n\nThe universe could be the same. Four macroscopic dimensions and a few more, hidden ones. We can only perceive them for instance, by the small effects their existence might have on subatomic particles.\n\nSerious enough?\nThe reference is a general article on the mathematical notion of dimensions, that contains links.
918805
Time And Relative Dimension In Space
182923
Yes. But, it's just a personal assumption, although it is an assumption held by the majority of people.\nThe most well known 4 dimensions are best described as width, length, depth and time. The order you list them does not matter, and there could be more - but humans have difficulty relating to more than these 4 (apart from imagining what they are like). The easist way to explain what a dimension is, is to say that you need all 4 to describe where an object is located.... eg, as a real world example I could tell you that I am located in a building at a certain cross-street (=length+width), a certain floor (=height) and at a certain time. You need all 4 dimensional descriptions to find me.\nTime is definitely the hardest of the 4 to properly comprehend. It's hard to think of time as being similar to length or width or height. It is special for sure to us humans, but that is only because our brain operates as a function of time... which means we are fooled into the perception that time 'moves'. Time does not move, no more than 'length' moves. You mind changes with time, just like the slope of a hill changes with height, but there is nothing to suggest that there is a certain special moment called 'now' that is somehow different to 'the future' or 'the past'. Read any scientific article on the topic if you really want to find out more about this 'special' dimension (see source link for an excellent read).
307338
Before we take on the four-dimensional Universe first a two-dimensional example. \n\nImagine a two-dimensional plane. An ant walking on it can go in any direction, without finding a boundary. Secondly if it keeps walking in one direction, it will never come back on the same place. The plane is infinite, without bounds.\n\nNext the surface of a two-dimensional sphere. This time the walking ant again will not come to a boundary, but he will, after some time, come back to the some place. The sphere is without bounds, but finite.\n\nWe see that these two ant Universes are different, although a shortsighted ant, would never be able to distinguish the two.\n\nNext lets move to our Universe. We are short-sighted ants too. Our telescopes can not see far enough to distinguish if we are in the three-dimensional equivalent of the sphere of the plane. \n\nAnd it is even worse. As we are living in three dimensions  more complicated space are possible. Imagine we are living in a cube, a special one with the following property. As soon as we leave the cube through one side, we enter it again on the side opposite where we left. This space is the 3-dimensional equivalent of a torus.\n\nYou see were we go: in three dimensions more complicated space are possible. One is the dodecahedral universe you mention. It has the shape of a dodecahedral, again with the property that if we leave through one side, we enter through another.\n\nImplausible? Maybe. Maybe not. At present we really have no way to tell. Just as the short-sighted ant.
588539
I am assuming this question comes from some thought on the 10-11 dimensions needed by string theory. In this occasion these dimensions are not noticable and have been added because they are needed to make the equations work. In three dimensions and time you only have four variables to work with. But now many physicists have noticed that if you increase our dimennsions to 7,8,9,10,11 it gives more mathematical flexibility and enables us to make equations that can unify gravity with the quantum world. Now for what is the seventh dimension, the first three dimensions are the normal spacial dimensions, up/down, right/left, forward/back. There is also a time dimension sometimes noted as the fourth. Then string theory says there should be another 7 dimensions. Where these would be and why we cant see them is still up for debate but current though is that they are extremely small crumpled up dimensions that we cant notice because there small size makes them have a minimal effect on forces and measurements. I would reccomend reading David Greene's books if you are still intersted in the ideas of string theory and such.
16536
It is expanding in a higher dimensional context.  So there are not 3 or 4 dimensional areas into which it expands, and you can't walk your four-dimensional self beyond the boundaries of space into a four-dimension area beyond space any more than Garfield or Dilbert can walk off the comic page to see the 3-D world in which the paper they're on could be folded.
145250
Sure!  The third dimension is almost universally believed to exist.\n\nI think you might have meant the fourth or fifth dimensions.  That's a little bit trickier.  The fourth dimension is time, but it is only occasionally convenient to think of it as such.  In some contexts, there's no question that the fourth dimension is time, in others, it's not convenient at all to think of time as another dimension.  That's pretty much my stance on it-- I don't constantly "believe" that time is or is not the fourth dimension.  I usually base view of it on the situation at hand.\n\nThe fifth and other dimensions are even weirder.  They're apparently responsible for mediating the forces we see, curving space to accomodate the accelerations observed.  I'm a little bit skeptical, but maybe a class in general relativity will sway my opinion.
1132675
Physics believes that there are 12 dimensions. The Bible seems to back that up.\n\nWe know four dimensions: height, width, length and time.