Seeing the 4th dimension

[punkwalrus]

Carl sagan once said, as a child, he was reading the John Carter Barsoom series, which is a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (yes, of Tarzan fame) about a guy who ends up on Mars, and zany madcap fun ensues. There was a passage that states a color which mankind could not see; “[W]here are the words to describe the glorious colours that are

Comments

[moliarity]

I always thought of the 4th as the "phase" of said objects. Everything we see and feel is the standard (to us). Mass that has a different "phase" is out of sync with everything around it, either time-displaced, atomically out of whack, or both. This allows for passing through "solid" objects (there's a LOT of open space inside an atom) and wacky light and sound properties. Ghosts and dark matter come to mind. But an idea that I have is that ghosts are real, but aren't spirits of the dead, but just another natural creature, out of phase, that hasn't been properly catalogued yet. They mimic their surroundings as a form of camoflauge, like a chameleon.

But with your description, in addition to it's maximum volume, it would also have a 4th dimensional "mass" - a combination of it's "stuff" multiplied by it's temporal span. Styrafoam has is very 4th dense, while said apple is not.

Now you got my brain running in wierd directions..

[pianodan]

All of this makes a lot more sense after you spend six years of your life studying advanced physics. I'm not saying it's WORTH spending the time, but once you have a handle on the (really ugly) math, it's a bit easier to grasp the big picture. Which does not include ghosts.