Hyperspace

What happens if you take a 3-dimensional cube and add another dimension? Welcome to the fabulous world of hyperspace.

Posted by Tormod Guldvog
12 July, 2004 09:07:41

It may be a simple question, but there is no simple answer. By using mathematics and advanced geometry, theoretical physicists have long since realized that although we can only see in 3D, there are mathematically no reason why there should not be more dimensions in the Universe.

Imagine a flat being living on a sheet of paper. If you hold a balloon over her world, she would only see the shadow of the balloon as it is projected onto her world. She has no idea what a third dimension is. (If you lke this idea, you should read Flatland by Edward Abbott, see link below).

Now, imagine that someone should hold a four-dimensional cube in front of you. What would you see? Would you be able to see anything at all? What would the shadow of this 4D cube look like?

Check out for yourself by browsing this weeks selected links.

(The hyperspace figure in the illustration was made by Mark Newbold.)

Related Links

Flatland
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=201
This is a full-text electronic version of Flatland, the famous book of life in many dimensions, written by Edwin Abbott

Is Space Finite?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00065A99-90A6-1CD6-B4A8809EC588EEDF&sc=I100322
An article from Scientific American (4/99) about how the Universe may be endless, depending on how many dimensions it has

Student of Hyperspace
http://www.uccs.edu/~eswab/hyprspac.htm
A page about different hyperspace shapes, with illustrations and explanations.

Hyperspace Polytype Slicer
http://dogfeathers.com/java/hyperslice.html
This is a clever java applet which lets you explore multi-dimensional figures.

Does Space Have More Than 3 Dimensions?
http://www.astronomycafe.net/cosm/dimens.html
An article by Sten Odenwald which explores different views on a multi-dimensional cosmos, with lots of background information and helpful insight

Hyperspace Structures: Exploring The Fourth Dimension
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ma/gallery/hyper/
This page has information and illustrations of the hypercube and the hypertorus, and animated clips showing how they rotate.

Hyperspheres, Hyperspace, And The Fourth Spatial Dimension
http://www.bright.net/~mrf/
This page, subtitled "A New Look at the Universe as a Closed Cosmic Hypersphere", has essays and links to hyperspace information

Michio Kaku, Articles
http://www.mkaku.org/articles/
A series of articles (links in the left margin) on the theory of everything, wormholes, hyperspace, string theory etc written by Michio Kaku

Hyperspheres, Hyperspace, and the Fourth Spatial Dimension
http://www.bright.net/~mrf/toc.html
This page, subtitled "A New Look at the Universe as a Closed Cosmic Hypersphere", is a great collection of essays links to hyperspace information.