Dimensioning the infinite
By Megala A (B.E. Mechanical, 2014-2018)
Pondering over the mystery of birth, death and life on earth!? Here’s a trek into the spatial dimensions, to make you still mystify the mysteries.
“Give examples of zero dimensional geometric figures.” Well, this statement is incorrect in its sense. To have zero dimension, it mustn’t be an entity or a figure, but be an infinitesimal point. Travel into the 1700s, ages before the advent of micro-tip pencils, and make an infinitesimal point on a sheet of paper. It’d almost be impossible, as sharpening the tip of the pencil to such an extent is a deviling job. Now, the question is, “How is this infinitesimal point connected to reality?” The essence of reality can be tasted with the flavor science. And science deals with the usage of dimensionless infinitesimal points, through the study of microbes.
Well, start saying the whole numbers in order. For each number, think of a geometrical entity. For zero, the entity is an infinitesimal point as seen before. For one, it’s a line, for two – a plane (square), for three- a cube, and for four – ? No disgrace if you don’t find a four dimensional geometric entity. Grace yourselves that you are a human being!
Live the life of reptiles crawling on a surface, and you’ll find it to be two dimensional. They are two dimensional creatures living in a three dimensional world. A paper with its thickness approaching zero, becomes a 2D object in a 3D world. So, are we humans – 3D creatures, capable of living in a 4D or higher dimensional space? Can the human brain adapt itself to higher dimensional environment? Well, it’s practically ‘No’, as the brain is only capable of imagining and visualizing unto 3D. But, how can the reptiles live in a 3D world?
Just take an ant, which visualizes two dimensions on a sheet of paper. Fold the paper in three dimensions, thus, making the ant to move in three dimensions. Be in place of the ant, and say how it feels! Before that, height makes us three dimensional. What, if we bring in the height component with 2 dimensional creatures? Imagine a lizard falling from roof to floor. It travels from 2D to 3D and again from 3D to 2D.
Now, coming to the four dimensional geometric entity, it’s ‘Tesseract’, and this can be imagined only through Math. Science doesn’t give an evidence of its existence. All higher dimensions are possible through Math. The after effects of science fiction movies and novels become the seeds for the thought of higher dimensions.
Well, humans-3D creatures can help 2D creatures experience three dimensions. Can some 4D creatures help us in experiencing 4 dimensions!? Is the universe we are living in actually 3 dimensional, or does it appearing to be?
MEGALA A (B.E. Mechanical, 2014-2018) is a person who goes deep into thinking and reasoning and relishes skepticism. Gaming and surfing are her hobbies. She feels that riddles always free her off from boredom.
