This comes to mind often when I am crossing a railway bridge and a fast-moving train thunders past on the track directly below where I am on the bridge. When the train passes, I heave a sign of relief and say, “thank God for the 3rd dimension.” You see, if there were no 3rd dimension, I would have been run over by the train, but which I wasn’t as we (thankfully) share only 2 of the 3 physical dimensions available to us.

But then I once had to cross an unmanned railway crossing as there were no bridges around. After I had safely crossed the unmanned crossing a train trundled past behind me, and I heaved a sigh of relief and said, thank God for the 4th dimension. You see, the train and I shared the same 3-dimensional space; however, the time at which I passed the crossing, and the time at which the train passed were different; if they weren’t, I would have been run over and killed.

We humans are pretty adept at using the notion of the 4th dimension to our benefit without really thinking of it as such.

Original post here:

 

Please spread the word among your friends & associates