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
Lateral & total surface area of triangular prisms | Grade 8 (TX) | Khan Academy
We’re asked what is the lateral surface area of the triangular prism and what is the total surface area of the triangular prism. Pause this video and try to solve this on your own before we work through this together. All right, so first let’s just remin…
Vitalik: Ethereum, Part 2
Vitalik, I want to ask you a little bit about how your role has evolved since it began in Ethereum. So, in the very beginning, before all of this, of course, you were once the uppity young entrepreneur. It’s been, what, six, seven years now? You’ve moved …
7 Best Questions Asked at Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
Why are you recommending listeners to buy now yet you’re not comfortable buying now as evidenced by your huge cash position? Well hey, as I just explained, the position isn’t that huge. When I look at worst-case possibilities, I would say that there are …
Why you SHOULDN'T buy a home
What’s up you guys? It’s Graham here. So, I think it’s a safe assumption that buying a home isn’t for everyone. Once you start looking at these statistics, that statement becomes very evident. It was found that 44% of homeowners regret their home purchase…
Planet or Plastic? | Explorer's Fest
[Applause] Some of you may have seen or heard about that classic film called The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman. As a young graduate was advised by the crusty businessman, “The future, my boy, is plastics.” Think 1960s, when plastics in our society wer…
Absurdism: Life is Meaningless
Sisyphus was a great king of Greek mythology. So clever, he was able to outwit the gods themselves. Twice he cheated death; first by capturing Thanatos, the god of death, then by tricking the goddess of the underworld, Persephone, into releasing him back …