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.

Milk. White Poison or Healthy Drink?

How to Use Khan Academy's Free Courses for Texas Teachers and Students

View All

You NEED to Take Time to Reflect On Your Decisions

So I’m curious, what do you see as the importance of principles as we navigate our lives personally, professionally, financially, and collectively into the future? Uh, what I discovered at an early age, and I really would recommend everybody do this, is …

How to Conserve Water | National Geographic

Today, I’m in Colorado, a state that can see more snow than Alaska. Standing here in the banks of this frozen reservoir, it’s easy to understand why water seems like a limitless resource. But the fact is, in the United States, we could face a national wat…

The Worth of Water | National Geographic

You know, there’s a saying: even if you are next to a river of water, save each drop because you don’t know whether there will be a drop tomorrow. The more people on Earth, the less available water we’re going to have to drink. The most important thing is…

Why We Isolate Ourselves and How to Reconnect

I think most of us agree that social isolation is a complex issue. It feels a bit like a classic ‘chicken and egg’ dilemma. We might ask ourselves: did our feelings of unhappiness and despair lead us to retreat into social isolation? Or, conversely, is it…

Tracking Tigers Is Just As Dangerous As It Sounds | Expedition Raw

We’re setting camera traps to study tigers. Two people got eaten by tigers right before we started. When there’s a tiger around, you can’t sleep; you can barely eat. You can’t do anything because all you are scared for your life. I’ve been in Indonesia n…

Complex exponentials spin

In the last video, we did a quick review of the exponential and what it means. Then we looked and figured out what the magnitude of an exponential is. The magnitude is equal to one. Now we’re going to look closely at this complex exponential as it represe…

Mirrors And The Fourth Dimension

More Articles