3 ms·
Yes. As the number of dimensions n increases above 3, the interior angles at each vertex of an n-cube get smaller and smaller[a], while the n-cube's hypervolume
by cs702 5y ago
Yes. As the number of dimensions n increases above 3, the interior angles at each vertex of an n-cube get smaller and smaller[a], while the n-cube's hypervolume gets more and more concentrated near its hypersurface, which is itself a hypervolume of n-1 dimensions.[b]
Lines and areas are different animals; we cannot reason about them apples-to-apples; we know this intuitively. Areas and volumes are different animals too; we cannot reason about them apples-to-apples; we know this intuitively. Similarly, n-dimensional objects and (n+1)-dimensional objects are different animals; we cannot reason about them apples-to-apples.
As human beings, we find it so difficult to reason "visually" about higher dimensional spaces, in part, I believe, because our puny little brains have spent a lifetime learning to model three dimensions (with a fourth dimension, time, flowing only in one direction).
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[a] See this comment by scatters: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29969181 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29969181
[b] See this old thread for intuitive explanations about how and why this happens with n-spheres as we increase the number of dimensions n: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15676220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15676220
- zarzavat 5y agoIt’s not just our brains that are evolutionarily unsuited to the task, but almost all of us except the few mathematicians who study these higher dimensional spaces, have basically no experience or exposure to higher dimensional spaces. If you spend a year playing 4D Minecraft (I assume without googling that this exists), I suspect your intuition would be very much improved.