yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Mirrors And The Fourth Dimension


less than 1m read
·Nov 10, 2024

Mirrors do not show us a fourth dimension, but they do show us what a fourth dimension could do to us. First, notice that some things are the same as their mirror image, but some things are not. These two shapes are similar, but they cannot be rotated to look identical, to be superimposable on each other. This is called being chiral.

A chiral shape and its mirror image are called anatomorphs. These two shapes are anatomorphs in two dimensions. No amount of two-dimensional rotations will ever make them superimposable. To do that, I'll need to smash one of them inside out, turn it into its own mirror image, or rotate it in a third, higher dimension.

If I place a sticker here and face that side away from me, notice that the mirror inverts the object, just like a rotation through a higher dimension. The side of the real object that's furthest from me becomes the side of the virtual object that's closest to me. So, what would I look like if I was rotated around a plane in a fourth spatial dimension and then brought back? I would look like that.

More Articles

View All
Tiger Sharks' Superpowered Jaws | SharkFest | National Geographic
Tiger sharks are one of the largest predatory sharks on the planet. They feed off an extensive menu: whales, birds, even other sharks. But there’s one delicacy that takes more effort than others. Turtles! So how much jaw power does it take to crunch throu…
Answering google's most searched questions of 2019..
So the Internet is a big place. There’s a lot of people on it, a lot of curious people. Things they want to do, stuff they want to learn, and that’s great and all. You know, it’s always good to learn things; you should never stop learning. Search engines …
Adjectives and commas | Adjectives | Khan Academy
Hey Garans, hey Paige, hi David. Hey, so Paige, I went to the grocery store yesterday and I got this apple. Okay? I put it in the fridge, uh, and this morning when I opened the fridge, the apple was all like gross and sticky and mushy. I really want to w…
Second derivatives (implicit equations): evaluate derivative | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy
So we have a question here from the 2015 AP Calculus AB test, and it says, “Consider the curve given by the equation ( y^3 - xy = 2 ).” It can be shown that the first derivative of ( y ) with respect to ( x ) is equal to that. So they solved that for us. …
The Global Spermageddon | Explorer
Our first story has serious global implications, the very survival of the human species, but it’s about something that really couldn’t get more personal—fertility. Researchers have recently found staggering drops in male sperm count in Western countries. …
Why I’m Selling Bitcoin
What’s up Wales? It’s Megalodon here, and I have no idea why you wanted me to say that as an intro, but there you go. And now we’re about to take a bit of a twist because I’m selling some Bitcoin. It’s been an absolutely crazy ride, hitting a high of alm…