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Originally Posted by Moontanman
Is time really the fourth dimension? If a 6" line has an infinite number of points, and a 6" square contains an infinite number of 6" lines and a 6" cube has an infinite number of 6" squares doesn't it follow that a 6" hypercube has to have an infinite number of 6" cubes? Does this analogy hold up to our idea of time?
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I don't think it does. Extending the known, and spatial, three dimensions to posit a similar characteristic in the fourth does not tell us about time. Indeed, it does not tell us about the fourth dimension. A hypercube is a visual and conceptual aid. It is not the fourth dimension (the map is not the territory). It's a way of envisioning the fourth dimension using the only dimensions conceptually available to us.
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I don't think so, could time have nothing to do with dimensions,
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Well, if you consider spacetime, time has everything to do with dimensionality, with space and time occupying separate, yet intertwined, dimensions..
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could it be a process, not a thing?
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Certainly. It would actually be hard to argue that time *is* a thing.
If you haven't already seen it, I recommend the following video for a look at scientific explorations into the nature of time.
