When it comes to coordinate planes, most people think of the traditional 2-D, X and Y plane. For nerds who like to spice things up, a 3-D, X,Y, and Z plane can be used. Is this it though? Is the 3rd dimension all that a human can perceive? Technically, yes-- humans can't actually see beyond the 3rd dimension. BUT WE'RE GONNA TRY ANYWAY. By Merriam Webster's definition, the 4th dimension is a dimension in addition to length, width, and depth. Specifically, it's a coordinate in addition to three rectangular coordinates especially when interpreted as the time coordinate in a space-time continuum. It's basically the realm of duration for an object, graphed via a 4th coordinate point. |
Like I said before, humans can't physically perceive the 4th dimension, but that's why nerds have the ability to draw geometric shapes from their imagination. A few examples are shown below.
The picture on top displays where a 4th coordinate point would be located. The lower left-side picture is a 4th dimensional cube. You can actually buy a 4-D Rubik's cube that resembles the picture above if you have no life. Lastly, the gif in the lower right corner is another 8 cell tesseract in motion.
The best way I've found to describe the 4th dimension is to imagine a tennis ball. Take the ball, and drop it. If you were to snapshot every frame of the ball's decent, then put all of those images together, you'd see a tube. It's a 3-D object occupying space over a set of time (a small visualization of the 4th dimension).
A more mathematical way to visualize the 4th dimension is through the use of 90 degree angles. Look at the 1st dimension, a line measured by x. If you make a 90 degree angle to the line you get the 2nd dimension, measured by x and y. 90 degrees from a 2-D plane will put you into the 3rd dimension. What's 90 degrees from the 3rd dimension? The space an object has taken up over time: the 4th dimension.
Understanding dimensions outside of the 3rd is very difficult and can be downright frustrating (much like a math class). Maintaining the brainpower to comprehend these complexities is something only mathematicians, physicists, and super nerds are capable of. Before theories of any other dimension can be formed, a basic understanding of math and coordinate planes is required.