Are We 4-Dimensional Instead of 3?

[Tradewind]

What happens when the unstoppable force hits the immovable object? That's the real question here.

Nothing apparently.

[StayTuned]

Nothing apparently.

Just like time and space, they probably nullify each other. When time hits space, both cease to exist.

Trust me, this is legit science

[kneehidude]

"You aren't thinking 4th dimensional, Marty!"

[mickybrighteyes]

We cant "travel" through time as it isn't a spacial dimension. That's why it's called "space and time" and not just "space."

Time isn't orthogonal to the three spacial dimensions.

I beg to differ... we can travel through time... at a rate of about 1 second per second in one direction only altered slightly by proximity if you stay at an distance from the ground for an extended period of time. This 'altered' rate is negligible and is mostly not noticed through normal means.

also we have no control over the boat <.< but we're still on for the ride.

[Tierbook]

Time is but a perception, the closer to the speed of light you move the more warped your perception of time, technically speaking in order to be 4th dimensional time would need to cease to have a meaning for us. There are two ways to achieve this, fool your mind in a computer simulation, that is to say have a person experience the entire life of a universe in the span of 1s, it's all a matter of perception.

[Concequence]

Another good vid

[Garnier Fructis]

The coordinate system reality uses... how about that one...

Reality uses many coordinates systems, courtesy of GR. Time and space do not behave like they do in SR throughout all of space and certainly not near anything that causes gravity, which is pretty much everything.

[Ethenil]

^Has a nice breakdown of your question starting at 2:40 and ending at 3:30. Should clear up any of your confusion.

Nice! I wonder, are there theories for that tenth dimension?

[Selastan]

^Has a nice breakdown of your question starting at 2:40 and ending at 3:30. Should clear up any of your confusion.

Actually, that raises more questions. That part about us "experiencing cross sections of our 4 dimensional selves" actually says we exist in the fourth dimension, we just can't see it until we come to it. BUT, a two dimensional object doesn't exist in the third at all, its impossible. Even paper cutouts of two dimensional shapes have depth. A two dimensional object can't exist in the third, it would be mathematically infinitely small. As i mentioned before, objects in our observable dimension can manipulate the fourth, an object of mass curves not just space but also time, as the two are intertwined. I don't really think it is a question of "can we look through time?" as much as it is a question of how. We don't have a sensory organ to observe past or future relative to our current position, but shouldn't it be theoretically possible? We can't see infrared, yet we can build devices to do so.

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Nothing apparently.

The only requirement to an unstoppable force is that it can't be stopped. The only requirement for an immovable object is that it can't be moved. So they would pass through each other? Nothing says they have to interact...

[twiddler]

I recall answering a user's graph theory question a while back. If you understand that question, you should understand dimensionality.

[Garnier Fructis]

Actually, that raises more questions. That part about us "experiencing cross sections of our 4 dimensional selves" actually says we exist in the fourth dimension, we just can't see it until we come to it. BUT, a two dimensional object doesn't exist in the third at all, its impossible. Even paper cutouts of two dimensional shapes have depth. A two dimensional object can't exist in the third, it would be mathematically infinitely small. As i mentioned before, objects in our observable dimension can manipulate the fourth, an object of mass curves not just space but also time, as the two are intertwined. I don't really think it is a question of "can we look through time?" as much as it is a question of how. We don't have a sensory organ to observe past or future relative to our current position, but shouldn't it be theoretically possible? We can't see infrared, yet we can build devices to do so.

The problem is that your analogies are based on euclidean space, and reality is not euclidean.

[Annu]

You could bend space with magnets in an attempt to also curve time back into itself, but all attempts to do so have been utterly unsuccessful.

Since when is the magnetic field able to bend the time? MRI patients or LHC engineers are typically not warped back in time

The idea of moving time backward is the result of extrapolating mathematical theories beyond their scope of application. There is no evidence for anti-gravity or faster than light in our universe.

But let's assume it was possible:

Time just defines how fast our universe is interacting on sub molecular basis, nothing more, nothing less. Just reverting this speed for a certain object would not move it back in time, the rest of the universe would still continue to move forward. In simple words: You put an old apple in and get a fresh apple out. I reality you would probably get a super toxic something that could evolve into an old apple, if it was surrounded by a backwards playing universe.

For time travel, you would have to revert time for the whole universe, except you. But if you remove one actor from the movie before playing it backward, it would give another result! If you don't have a clone of yourself at hand, you would see the universe play backward acting in a way, as if you never existed.

The only way back to an already past point in time would be to move the entire universe back it time. But if you hit the backwards button without someone in the past pushing the forward button, you would play backwards until the big bang. However, pressing forward while playing forwards does nothing. The reverse of nothing is still nothing. So you are screwed anyways.

[Deleted]

Time is nothing but a tool to observe movement. If there's no movement on any level, there's no time.

[timberx]

I've been thinking about this for a while...a 2 Dimensional being should have no ability to comprehend the concept of a Z Axis. A square shouldn't know what the hell "up" is, as it can't perceive up or down. We have always though we lived in third dimension, where we can understand 3 axes, but the fourth dimension, Time, is understandable to us. We can see it, observe it, and even measure it, yet we can't manipulate it. But why? If we can walk side to side, forward and back, and up and down, whats stopping us moving through time, or at least observing different places in time? According to the theory of relativity, time and space are one. So since we can observe two places at the same time, why can't we observe two times at the same place? Time manipulation has even observed, and breaking the speed of light should theoretically cause time to move backwards relative to the observer (That also explains the infamous "flying around the world to reverse time" in Superman, he didn't reverse the Earth's rotation to change time, he was just flying faster than light, making it looklike the Earth was spinning backwards. fun fact!).

I mean, if a square could hypothetically move by itself, it would also experience the passage of time. That doesn't mean squares are 3-dimensional.

[Dendrek]

If we were only 3 dimensional, we wouldn't be able to move. We'd be like a museum art piece forever suspended in a single state. We may be limited to moving in only one direction through time, but we still move through it.

[Nanaboostme]

How about the theory that there are 10 Dimensions? I guess it's a bad idea to go there.

[Belize]

In other words, my dick transcends all dimensions.

[Kathandira]

I've been thinking about this for a while...a 2 Dimensional being should have no ability to comprehend the concept of a Z Axis. A square shouldn't know what the hell "up" is, as it can't perceive up or down. We have always though we lived in third dimension, where we can understand 3 axes, but the fourth dimension, Time, is understandable to us. We can see it, observe it, and even measure it, yet we can't manipulate it. But why? If we can walk side to side, forward and back, and up and down, whats stopping us moving through time, or at least observing different places in time? According to the theory of relativity, time and space are one. So since we can observe two places at the same time, why can't we observe two times at the same place? Time manipulation has even observed, and breaking the speed of light should theoretically cause time to move backwards relative to the observer (That also explains the infamous "flying around the world to reverse time" in Superman, he didn't reverse the Earth's rotation to change time, he was just flying faster than light, making it looklike the Earth was spinning backwards. fun fact!).

Human's are a three dimensional species. Ziltoidians are four dimensional beings.

[Uzkin]

Time is not always orthogonal to space. It depends on the metrics of the coordinate system you're using.

If time is defined as the "time-like" component of the 4D Minkowski spacetime, i.e. as the dimension which differs in its metric signature from the other 3 dimensions, then time is indeed orthogonal to the space dimensions. And this remains true upon all Lorentz transformations of the spacetime.

It is quite simple to show that, e.g.
(1,0,0,0)*(0,1,0,0) = 0 (the orthogonality criterion)
where * is the Minkowski (pseudo) inner product and the four-vectors are of the form (t,x,y,z).

[StayTuned]

Since when is the magnetic field able to bend the time? MRI patients or LHC engineers are typically not warped back in time

The idea of moving time backward is the result of extrapolating mathematical theories beyond their scope of application. There is no evidence for anti-gravity or faster than light in our universe.

But let's assume it was possible:

Time just defines how fast our universe is interacting on sub molecular basis, nothing more, nothing less. Just reverting this speed for a certain object would not move it back in time, the rest of the universe would still continue to move forward. In simple words: You put an old apple in and get a fresh apple out. I reality you would probably get a super toxic something that could evolve into an old apple, if it was surrounded by a backwards playing universe.

For time travel, you would have to revert time for the whole universe, except you. But if you remove one actor from the movie before playing it backward, it would give another result! If you don't have a clone of yourself at hand, you would see the universe play backward acting in a way, as if you never existed.

The only way back to an already past point in time would be to move the entire universe back it time. But if you hit the backwards button without someone in the past pushing the forward button, you would play backwards until the big bang. However, pressing forward while playing forwards does nothing. The reverse of nothing is still nothing. So you are screwed anyways.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...charges-and-m/

Magnets can bend space and as such can also affect time. Thats how I understand it.

And really... an MRI is not powerful enough to do anything noticeable. Just like moving in a jet won't make you feel any difference in timeflow, although there is one