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.

The U.S. Faces a Major Debt Problem

Patterns in hundreds chart

View All

"He Saved My Life" American Soldier Returns to Help Iraqi Captain Fleeing ISIS | National Geographic

[Music] [Music] Ian yes for [Music] I’m very scared to lose my son, lose my daughter, lose my wife, thus all my [Music] life. The soldiers, like the captain, are the ones that kept us alive. My name is Chase Msab. I’m a veteran of the Iraq War. I did thre…

The Best Way To Launch Your Startup | Startup School

Foreign [Music] Head of Outreach at Y Combinator. So I’ve been at YC for about nine years now, and that means I’ve seen over 3,500 companies go through the program and launch at YC. One of the things my team does is help companies with their first launche…

Dung to the Rescue | Primal Survivor

[Music] Now I need to make a fire before it gets dark. I’m using a traditional method called a hand drill. This relies on friction between a soft wood base and a hard straight stick. I found that sticks that are hollow inside trap heat better, and it mak…

2 step estimation word problems

We are told that a race car driver has 28 cars. Each car has four tires. He has to replace all the tires on the cars. He has 22 tires right now. Estimate the total number of tires he needs to buy. So pause this video and see if you can do that. And the ke…

Worked example: Using the reaction quotient to predict a pressure change | Khan Academy

A one liter reaction vessel contains 1.2 moles of carbon monoxide, 1.5 moles of hydrogen gas, and 2.0 moles of methanol gas. How will the total pressure change as the system approaches equilibrium at constant temperature? So, our carbon monoxide is react…

Three Ways to Destroy the Universe

One day the universe will die. But why? And how? And will the universe be dead forever? And how do we know that? First of all, the universe is expanding. And not only that, the rate of its expansion is accelerating. The reason: dark energy. Dark energy i…

Mirrors And The Fourth Dimension

More Articles