What Does Four Dimensional Mean?
In physics, what is meant by "four-dimensional" is that the universe as it is known is bounded by four dimensions. Although the world is typically conceptualized to have a three-dimensional existence, events in the space-time continuum are not precisely described without the inclusion of the fourth non-spatial dimension--time.
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Coordinates
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Dimensional systems use groups of variables or numbers called coordinates to define locations with respect to an origin point. A three-dimensional coordinate system describes locations or orients objects spatially. Events, however, require a time "location" to fully describe the occurrence of the event.
The Time Dimension
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Time has only seen its place in modern physics as a "dimension" since around the beginning of the 20th century. Before the work of Hermann Minkowski, time was considered to be a completely independent parameter upon which motion kinematics depended.
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Space-Time & Special Relativity
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Special relativity is the theory that all uniform motion is relative to the inertial frame from which it is observed. In analyses of problems in special relativity, dimensions undergo transformations that relate one frame of observation (of the motion) to another. The time transformation depends on the speed of the relative motion and only becomes significant when that speed is a large fraction of the speed of light. Therefore, the modern physics conceptualization of space-time describes the time dimension as exhibiting its own type of dependence, allowing for the "stretching" of time at very high speeds.
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References
- Photo Credit Abstract look at digital information twisting in space and time image by Nicemonkey from Fotolia.com
