In the 21st century, films and television have evolved to show 3D images. However, most people only have a crude understanding of what dimensions actually mean. This is a guide that will explore the incredible journey from a zero-dimensional point to a tenth-dimensional point and all the wonderful lines and folds that lie in between.
A point in space has no area – this is the zeroth dimension.
When two points are connected, it forms a line – the first dimension. This line allows one to travel from one 0D point to another, introducing the concept of length.
Another line is drawn branching off this line in a different direction – we have entered the second dimension. Now we have the concept of width.
By adding another concept – depth – we ascend to the third dimension. Now it is possible to go from one point on a 2D surface to another as we have “folded” a branch in the second dimension to meet the other branch. A simple explanation would be lifting your finger off one point and placing it on another point.
To simplify our journey to the third dimension we have:
- Assumed a “point” in space as a dot (.)(0D)
- “Joined” two dots to form a line (|)(1D)
- “Branched” the line to create two ends (Y)(2D)
- “Folded” the branches together to make the two ends meet (P)(3D)
These four concepts of point, joining, branching and folding are crucial in understanding how the different dimensions interact.
An interesting thought regarding the concept of dimensions is perception. How would inhabitants of each dimension view different dimensions? This is easy for lower dimensions (2D and below) because we can see them as a dot, line, square and cube (our dimension). Ergo, we can easily understand all the concepts of the lower dimensions (e.g. width). However, the opposite would not be possible (e.g. a 2D being trying to understand depth) as the concept does not exist in their dimension.
To further explore this thought, we must explore the world of Flatland.
(This post is part of a series exploring the concepts of dimensions. Read all of them here: https://jineralknowledge.com/tag/dimensions/?order=asc)
