Visualizing a fourth spacial dimension - any success stories?

[Dale Dough]

I mean actually VISUALIZING. Like, when you close your eyes you can still visualize a three-dimensional world, because you know it's out there.

I find the '2D-3D projections of a rotating hypercube' don't do it for me. I mean, I KNOW what it's supposed to be, why the small cube turns inside out into the big cube and then back, etc. etc., but I can't actually visualize it in four dimensions. (This guy made a 'tesseract trainer'. Very beautiful indeed, and I intend to keep trying, but it hasn't done anything for me yet. Link )

If you can actually 'see' into extra dimensions with your mind, how did you acquire this skill?

[yukoncpa]

Yes, you can clearly see a fourth spatial dimension, in the same way the Flatlander did. Just have someone from the fourth dimension, push you out of your three dimensional world and take a look around. - everything will become crystal clear. But then, I suspect that once you are placed back into your 3 dimensional world, you’ll suffer the same fate as the Flatlander. As time passes, you’ll forget how the fourth dimension looked and your whole experience will be fuzzy and confusing, also, you’ll have an impossible time trying to explain to someone else, just exactly what you saw. After all, for a forth dimensional person, it is a trivial matter to look inside a room that is surrounded on all sides by walls.
Flatland from Amazon

Three fourths of the way down this article, is a few more artist’s renditions of what the fourth dimension, or at least shadows cast from the fourth dimension, might look like.


link

[m_the0ry]

Oh yeah its way easy. Just check out this projection of a 4 dimensional sphere and you'll see what I mean

[bluesbassman]

I don't know how much math you've studied, but in linear algebra and other topics of mathematics, 4 dimensional or higher vectors are common. You can think of a vector as an "arrow" which has a length and a direction. So a 2-dimensional vector can be represented by this figure on your monitor: --->

A 3-dim vector can be thought of as an "arrow" pointing in a room. We can just as easily mathematically define 4-dimensional and higher vectors, which are "arrows" in 4-dimensional or higher space. The math is a natural, straightforward extension of 3-dimensions, however yes, they can be difficult to physically visualize. I try to imagine 4-dimensional vectors "extending" in an "extra" dimension I can't quite see.

In much of my work, I play around with mathematical objects called quaternions, which can be represented for some calculations by 4-dimensional vectors. So after a while, this becomes more natural and intuitive, even if I can't quite "see" it.

[oe39]

it seems to me that, at best, you can delude yourself into thinking you can visualize 4 dimensions.

[AWoodside]

[ QUOTE ]
I mean actually VISUALIZING. Like, when you close your eyes you can still visualize a three-dimensional world, because you know it's out there.

I find the '2D-3D projections of a rotating hypercube' don't do it for me. I mean, I KNOW what it's supposed to be, why the small cube turns inside out into the big cube and then back, etc. etc., but I can't actually visualize it in four dimensions. (This guy made a 'tesseract trainer'. Very beautiful indeed, and I intend to keep trying, but it hasn't done anything for me yet. Link )

If you can actually 'see' into extra dimensions with your mind, how did you acquire this skill?

[/ QUOTE ]

I wasn't aware that anybody that's considered reputable claims to be able to visualize 4 spatial dimensions.

[PairTheBoard]

I have trouble visualizing 3 dimensions.

PairTheBoard

[Phil153]

Visualizing the flow of time is probably the closest you can get.

[Dale Dough]

Fair enough, I see the problem. It's just a curiosity thing for me. Because the concept really isn't hard to understand at all, I don't see a reason why our brains shouldn't be able to 'see' it.

That, and the fact that there are countless fields of science dealing with it, led me to believe that there have to be people that can, in fact, see it in their heads. Guess it's harder than I thought.

PTB, care to expand on that? Seems to me that there's more to it than just a witty remark.. maybe I'm overestimating my 3D visualization skills?

[sledghammer]

I recommend LSD or mushrooms.