THE FOURTH DIMENSION SIMPLY EXPLAINED

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Sometimes the engineer or the mathematician desires to plot an algebraic equation containing three variables, such as x + y + z = 10. Proceeding as before, it is possible to obtain values of z for particular values of x and y. The values of z, however, cannot be represented on the same plane with x and y, for it is necessary to have a third, a z-axis, along which to measure the values of z, and this axis must be perpendicular to the other two at their intersection. Having assumed a z-axis, we proceed to plot the equation of the three variables in the same manner that equations of two variables were plotted. Particular values for x and y are assumed and the equation is solved for z. The values thus obtained for each of the variables are then laid off in the direction of their respective axes. This concrete representation of equations of two and three variables aided the mind so well in the solution of difficult problems that mathematicians suggested that this interpretation be extended to include equations of four variables such as are sometimes found in problems of electricity and of physics. An equation, such as, x + y + z + w = 16, to be plott! requires a fourth, a W-axis, along which to measure
Page 167 the values of w. Such an axis must be constructed perpendicular to the X, the Y, and the Z axes at their intersection. Here the mathematicians, as the popular saying goes, found themselves up against it, for they could not draw four straight lines mutually perpendicular at a point. This limitation of our space prevented the geometric representation of equations of four variables, but it did not deter further study of the equations.

Men are continually calculating what would happen if conditions were different from what they are. The student of history seeks to determine the effect on history, if Napoleon had won the battle of Waterloo; the physicist calculates the probable amount of heat that would be generated if the earth were suddenly stopped in its orbit; so, too, the mathematician, unable to construct four mutually perpendicular lines, spends valuable time in determining what would happen if it were possible to construct his perpendiculars. This leads him to the concept of four-dimensional space. Here the reader is apt to become confused. The layman, on being told that in a fourdimensional space four straight lines can be constructed mutually perpendicular, immediately seeks to visualize to himself these four perpendiculars. Of course, all such attempts to picture these lines seem futile, and the whole discussion is, forthwith, pronounced a humbug. This, however, is not a fair verdict, because the layman does not usually get the true meaning of the mathematician. It is not meant that these four lines should be actually constructed. That, as far as we are able to know, is impossible. It is perfectly legitimate, however, to calculate what would happen if this were possible, and that is all the mathematician attempts to do.
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Physical possibility and mathematical possibility are not always identical. A valid mathematical statement may often be quite incapable of physical interpretation, as will be shown by a reference to Euclid's eleventh axiom. A statement is possible mathematically if it is selfconsistent, and if it does not contradict other assumptions in the same discussion. Euclid, the father of geometry, states in his eleventh axiom that through a given point only one straight line can be drawn parallel to another straight line. Proceeding on the assumption that his axiom was

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