[QUOTE=Glorbo;34361864][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnURElCzGc0[/media][/QUOTE]
This is one of the reasons why I always thought the fourth dimension being time was bullshit.
[QUOTE=Speedstream;34370880]This is one of the reasons why I always thought the fourth dimension being time was bullshit.[/QUOTE]
Four dimensional Euclidean space (four equal dimensions rather than 3 spatial and one time) is really just a mathematical construct. Higher dimensional space is used all the time to solve real physical problems but it doesn't mean those dimensions actually physically exist. In quantum mechanics, the concept of 'Hilbert space' is commonly used, which can have infinite dimensions, but it doesn't mean you're delving into real physical dimensions when you use such a tool.
The unifying of space and time into four dimensional spacetime makes sense because of how the independence of space and time disappears at high speeds/energies or cosmological scales. Time and space become completely intertwined in the cases where the effects of special or general relativity dominate. If you warp space, you warp the passage of time. If you travel at high speeds the effect of space contracting or time dilating are practically equivalent.
Creating spacetime vastly simplifies many aspects of physics and it's a powerful method to be able to represent space and time together in a fourth dimensional vector, or coordinate.
(You could debate whether the concept of spacetime is created just as a tool to simplify calculation and allow the use of powerful mathematics, or whether that actually is reality, but then I think you're delving into the age old 'Is mathematics a purely human construct to try and explain reality or is it fundamental to the universe,' amongst other unsolvable questions, and that's some hardcore philosophical shit :v:)
Representing time as a fourth dimension alongside space is really just something we do to make things easier, or more intuitive. It's a [I]representation[/I] of space and time as four dimensions. We humans love representing things in dimensions, its why we draw graphs. Drawing a graph with 2 axis is visualizing things in two dimensions, but those two dimensions dont have to be space or time or anything physical.
That's not how dimensions work, this is how:
[video=youtube;JkxieS-6WuA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA[/video]
There's a model that uses string theory math that determined at the beginning there were originally 9 spacial dimensions but only four of them expanded incredibly quickly.
[QUOTE=DunderAxel;34372447]That's not how dimensions work, this is how:
[video=youtube;JkxieS-6WuA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA[/video][/QUOTE]
No, this video is not based in reality. Rob Bryanton (the guy who made this video) constantly says, throughout his videos, that it is more of a philosophical than a physical/mathematical construct.
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