Exposition of fourth dimension, concepts of relativity as Flatland characters continue adventures. Topics include curved space time as a higher dimension, special relativity, and shape of space-time. Includes 141 illustrations.
One of the most talented contemporary authors of cutting-edge math and science books conducts a fascinating tour of a higher reality, the Fourth Dimension. Includes problems, puzzles, and 200 drawings. "Informative and mind-dazzling." — Martin Gardner.
In this insightful book, which is a revisionist math history as well as a revisionist art history, Tony Robbin, well known for his innovative computer visualizations of hyperspace, investigates different models of the fourth dimension and how these are applied in art and physics. Robbin explores the distinction between the slicing, or Flatland, model and the projection, or shadow, model. He compares the history of these two models and their uses and misuses in popular discussions. Robbin breaks new ground with his original argument that Picasso used the projection model to invent cubism, and that Minkowski had four-dimensional projective geometry in mind when he structured special relativity. The discussion is brought to the present with an exposition of the projection model in the most creative ideas about space in contemporary mathematics such as twisters, quasicrystals, and quantum topology. Robbin clarifies these esoteric concepts with understandable drawings and diagrams. Robbin proposes that the powerful role of projective geometry in the development of current mathematical ideas has been long overlooked and that our attachment to the slicing model is essentially a conceptual block that hinders progress in understanding contemporary models of spacetime. He offers a fascinating review of how projective ideas are the source of some of today’s most exciting developments in art, math, physics, and computer visualization.
The long-awaited new edition of a groundbreaking work on the impact of alternative concepts of space on modern art. In this groundbreaking study, first published in 1983 and unavailable for over a decade, Linda Dalrymple Henderson demonstrates that two concepts of space beyond immediate perception—the curved spaces of non-Euclidean geometry and, most important, a higher, fourth dimension of space—were central to the development of modern art. The possibility of a spatial fourth dimension suggested that our world might be merely a shadow or section of a higher dimensional existence. That iconoclastic idea encouraged radical innovation by a variety of early twentieth-century artists, ranging from French Cubists, Italian Futurists, and Marcel Duchamp, to Max Weber, Kazimir Malevich, and the artists of De Stijl and Surrealism. In an extensive new Reintroduction, Henderson surveys the impact of interest in higher dimensions of space in art and culture from the 1950s to 2000. Although largely eclipsed by relativity theory beginning in the 1920s, the spatial fourth dimension experienced a resurgence during the later 1950s and 1960s. In a remarkable turn of events, it has returned as an important theme in contemporary culture in the wake of the emergence in the 1980s of both string theory in physics (with its ten- or eleven-dimensional universes) and computer graphics. Henderson demonstrates the importance of this new conception of space for figures ranging from Buckminster Fuller, Robert Smithson, and the Park Place Gallery group in the 1960s to Tony Robbin and digital architect Marcos Novak.
This colorful, visual introduction to the fourth dimension provides a clear explanation of the concepts and numerous illustrations. It is written with a touch of personality that makes this an engaging read instead of a dry math text. The content is very accessible, yet at the same time detailed enough to satisfy the interests of advanced readers. This book is devoted to geometry; there are no spiritual or religious components to this book. May you enjoy your journey into the fascinating world of the fourth dimension! Contents: Introduction Chapter 0: What Is a Dimension? Chapter 1: Dimensions Zero and One Chapter 2: The Second Dimension Chapter 3: Three-Dimensional Space Chapter 4: A Fourth Dimension of Space Chapter 5: Tesseracts and Hypercubes Chapter 6: Hypercube Patterns Chapter 7: Planes and Hyperplanes Chapter 8: Tesseracts in Perspective Chapter 9: Rotations in 4D Space Chapter 10: Unfolding a Tesseract Chapter 11: Cross Sections of a Tesseract Chapter 12: Living in a 4D House Further Reading Glossary About the Author Put on your spacesuit, strap on your safety harness, swallow your anti-nausea medicine, and enjoy this journey into a fourth dimension of space! 10D, 9D, 8D, 7D, 6D, 5D, 4D, 3D, 2D, 1D, 0D. Blast off!
Joe Cube is a Silicon Valley hotshot--well, a would-be hotshot anyway--hoping that the 3-D TV project he's managing will lead to the big money IPO he's always dreamed of. On New Year's Eve, hoping to impress his wife, he sneaks home the prototype. It brings no new warmth to their cooling relationship, but it does attract someone else's attention. When Joe sees a set of lips talking to him (floating in midair) and feels the poke of a disembodied finger (inside him), it's not because of the champagne he's drunk. He has just met Momo, a woman from the All, a world of four spatial dimensions for whom our narrow world, which she calls Spaceland, is something like a rug, but one filled with motion and life. Momo has a business proposition for Joe, an offer she won't let him refuse. The upside potential becomes much clearer to him once she helps him grow a new eye (on a stalk) that can see in the fourth-dimensional directions, and he agrees. After that it's a wild ride through a million-dollar night in Las Vegas, a budding addiction to tasty purple 4-D food, a failing marriage, eye-popping excursions into the All, and encounters with Momo's foes, rubbery red critters who steal money, offer sage advice and sometimes messily explode. Joe is having the time of his life, until Momo's scheme turns out to have angles he couldn't have imagined. Suddenly the fate of all life here in Spaceland is at stake. Rudy Rucker is a past master at turning mathematical concepts into rollicking science fiction adventure, from Spacetime Donuts and White Light to The Hacker and the Ants. In the tradition of Edwin A. Abbott's classic novel, Flatland, Rucker gives us a tour of higher mathematics and visionary realities. Spaceland is Flatland on hyperdrive! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Based on the ideas of Einstein and Minkowski, this concise treatment is derived from the author's many years of teaching the mathematics of relativity at the University of Michigan. Geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students of physics, the text covers old physics, new geometry, special relativity, curved space, and general relativity. Beginning with a discussion of the inverse square law in terms of simple calculus, the treatment gradually introduces increasingly complicated situations and more sophisticated mathematical tools. Changes in fundamental concepts, which characterize relativity theory, and the refinements of mathematical technique are incorporated as necessary. The presentation thus offers an easier approach without sacrifice of rigor. Dover (2014) republication of the edition published by John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1950. See every Dover book in print at www.doverpublications.com