fourth dimension
4
8.5
- noun
- /fɔrθ dɪˈmɛnʃən/
- Specialized
:
cuarta dimensión
- In the nineteenth century, the comparison began to take on momentum as mathematicians began exploring the fourth dimension of space.
- the fourth dimension of time
The three spatial dimensions, you know, height, width, and depth need a fourth dimension to localize it in any spatial system you're talking about.
- The three spatial dimensions, you know, height, width, and depth need a fourth dimension to localize it in any spatial system you're talking about.
- If you add a fourth dimension, you're adding a degree of freedom of where things can hang out and possibly never then find each other.
Examples
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What is the fourth dimension?
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We can think about the fourth dimension and do math in the fourth dimension.
Blog text (14) -
The fourth dimension cannot be seen or felt.
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When I speak of time, I'm referring to the fourth dimension.
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The fourth dimension is as real and true as the other three.
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Without using time as the fourth dimension of spacetime, the physical world can be described more accurately.
Blog text (31) -
The three spatial dimensions, you know, height, width, and depth need a fourth dimension to localize it in any spatial system you're talking about.
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The books on relativity all told of the difficulty—the impossibility—of visualizing the fourth dimension.
Fiction book (1996) -
In physics, the concept of the fourth dimension is often represented as time, allowing us to understand events in a continuum.
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To fully describe an event, one must consider the fourth dimension along with the three spatial dimensions.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
The ongoing flow in which events happen and are measured
46
7.9
A way of seeing space and time as one thing
13
8.1
A four-dimensional framework that joins space and time where events happen
8
8.0
The single thing made of space and time where everything happens
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'fourth' (the number four in sequence) and 'dimension' (a measurable aspect or axis) make it reasonably predictable that this refers to an additional dimension beyond the first three, so learners can grasp the general idea. However, the technical sense (e.g. that the fourth dimension is often time or a specific mathematical construct) requires domain knowledge beyond simple word meanings, so the relation is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Fourth dimension comes from math and physics. Imagine three directions: left-right, forward-back, and up-down. The idea of a fourth dimension is one more 'direction' we cannot see, often 'time', so the phrase means a space or 'direction' beyond the three we know.