On Ten Dimensions Part 2

It wasn't more than a few minutes that had passed when Gao Liang, Xuiying, and Lihua started to circle the projection slowly.

Each one of their minds was working in overdrive, trying desperately to unveil the secrets of the fourth dimension. Perhaps viewing the question from different angles would lead them to different ideas, which in turn could eventually lead to the answer.

Hualing quickly took notice of Zhongming. He did not join his fellow young cultivators in orbiting the projection; in fact, he didn't seem to be pondering the question at all. His actions seemed to indicate he had already understood the nature of the fourth dimension in Hualing's new model.

"Zhongming," Hualing called out," It seems like you already have an idea about the fourth dimension. So why don't you share your insights with everyone?"

Zhongming glanced at his friends; while he had intended to give them some more time in thinking things through, it was improbable that they would just suddenly arrive at the answer after all these ideas were usually discovered by those who had dedicated their entire lives to a very narrow field of study.

"Time." He answered. "The fourth dimension is time."

"Time?" Gao Liang asked, a bit bewildered, "How did you arrive at such a conclusion?"

Zhongming noticed that Gao Liang, Xiuyingand Lihua were all staring at him intently, the three curious about his reasoning.

"If we consider zero dimension to be a point in space, and one dimension to be a connection between two zero-dimensional points forming a line. Then two dimensions can be considered as a connection between two parallel one-dimensional lines forming a plane. And three dimensions can be seen as a connection between two two-dimensional planes forming a cube."

Zhongming paused for a little while to allow everyone to process what he had said thus far.

"If we follow this pattern, then we would need to connect two three-dimensional cubes in order to conceive the fourth dimension. One method, as Hualing showed us earlier, is to create a tesseract; you could do this by creating two three-dimensional cubes and joining them at the corners orthogonally."

"The other method to join two three-dimensional cubes is to view the cubes not as geometric shapes, but rather as three-dimensional snapshots of reality. And therefore time is a line that joins the three-dimensional snapshot from one minute ago to the three-dimensional snapshot now."

Suddenly, it was like an epiphany had gone off in the minds of Gao Liang, Xiuying, and Lihua. This was a completely new and intuitive way of viewing reality for them.

It shouldn't have been surprising that none of the three were able to figure out such a thing in such a short timeframe. In his old world, it had taken a few hundred years of scientific advancements and the genius of people like Einstein to discover the nature of the fourth dimension.

What was surprising was that Hualing was able to independently arrive at this conclusion despite the discrepancy in available scientific knowledge between the two worlds. Actually, in this world, the scientific method had not even been formally created.

"Impressive comprehension," Hualing remarked." That's absolutely correct to think that there was someone else who had come to the same conclusion as me; in fact, perhaps you had understood this truth before I have."

Zhongming could only rub the back of his head sheepishly. He didn't really come to that conclusion; he was merely taught that conclusion back in school.

"So if the fourth dimension is time. Then, why don't you try to deduce the true nature of the fifth dimension?"

This time the three other cultivators huddled around Zhongming. Gao Liang even going so far to as lean in towards Zhongming, his hand cupping his mouth as he whispered into Zhongming's ear.

"Zhongming, come on, help you brother out. Give me just a small hint."

"Gao Liang," Xiuying reprimanded, "Stop trying to take advantage of Zhongming."

Gao Liang replied by sticking out his tongue childishly while backing off.

"Actually, I haven't really considered anything past the fourth dimension. Regarding the fifth dimension, I'm in the same boat as everyone else."

The minutes ticked by as they exchanged ideas and pondered the implication of those ideas.

Finally, Lihua had made a valuable contribution.

"If we rationalize this step by step, this might be a much easier endeavor. If the fourth dimension is the line between two, three-dimensional frames of existence. Then it shouldn't be a leap to compare the fourth dimension to the first dimension. However, whereas the first dimension is a line between two zero-dimensional points. The fourth dimension would be a line between two three-dimensional points. Thus I propose that the fifth dimension can be compared to the second dimension."

"I see," Xiuying interjected as her eyes lit up, Lihua's words invoking a new understanding in her. "So as we experience the world, we experience it in three dimensions. And each frame of reality that we experience moves us forward in time. But actually, moving forwards in time is not anymore valid than moving backwards in time. If we were four-dimensional beings, we could theoretically freely move to any point in time in and either forward or backward! Then as fifth-dimensional beings, we could more right and left through time."

"However, what doesn't that even mean? Moving right and left through time, how does that even work?" Zhongming questioned.