Understanding Dimensions and Perception

Imagine that this folder is a dimensional plane.

Now, assuming that it has no height and no depth, what would this mean?

It would mean that it's a one-dimensional world.

So if, hypothetically, an organism was living inside of it, it would only

be able to move in a linear path forward and backwards in a straight line.

Now,

if we go to the second dimension, we have two dimensions.

We have width and we have length. So hypothetically, if an organism lived

inside of here, then it would be able to move up, down,

left, right, and

anywhere else in between.

And a two-dimensional world is comprised of an infinite

series of one-dimensional worlds stacked upon each other.

Just as our three-dimensional world, which has depth

and length and height,

is comprised of an infinite series of two-dimensional worlds.

So this-- Now that I have stacked many folders upon

each other,

we have three dimensions. We have depth, we have length, and we have width.

Now, what happens if you keep going on from

here on out?

We would have a four-dimensional world. But what exactly is a fourth dimension?

In order to understand this, we need to understand how dimensions

are perceived.

We live in the three-dimensional world, but despite that, we actually view

things to be two-dimensionally. Take a perfect sphere, for

example. If you're looking at a sphere, it looks just like a regular

two-dimensional circle. The only way that you can tell it's just an actual

sphere

instead of a circle is because of the hues of light on it.

So just like in a two-dimensional world, if a, um,

organism in the two-dimensional world was looking upon a circle, it would-- the

light would make it appear to be lighter at one end and darker at

the middle.

Also, if you-- if an object is moving farther-- closer

and farther away

from you, you don't actually perceive that it's getting closer and farther away.

You see that it's getting smaller or larger, and then you assume that it's

getting either farther away or closer.

But let's say the object was to grow in perfectly

equilibrium so that it was growing at the same speed that

it was shrinking as you move it farther away.

Then you would not be able to tell without any lights or, uh, if there were

details on the object that it's moving or growing at all.

You may have assumed that since we perceive things to be in two

dimensions, that

a two-dimensional o-, uh, organism would see in one dimension.

So as we're watching this, uh, rubber band expand,

as it moves farther away from this little, uh, organism in the

two-dimensional world, it's-- does not actually perceive anything's

happening to it because it's growing at the same speed that it's moving farther

away. But since we can actually see it from the

three-dimensional world and

perceive things to be in two dimensions, we can see things

for how they actually are.

The reason that the two-dimensional organism doesn't see things the way they

really

are is because the two-dimensional organism sees things in one dimension.