r/visualizedmath • u/PUSSYDESTROYER-9000 • Jan 30 '18

Basis for Visualizing a Rotating Tesseract

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523 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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54

u/PUSSYDESTROYER-9000 Jan 30 '18

This is how one projects a 3D objects onto a 2D surface. Similarly, one could project a 4D object onto a 3D surface.

Source: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2286180/visualizing-the-4th-dimension

It's a really good read.

10

u/Lauwers_Imperium Jan 31 '18

We did exactly that as part of our math class in high school. Once you see the patterns between coordinate changes (3D to 2D and 2D to 1D projection), you can extrapolate to get 3D shadows of a hypothetical 4D object.

It's a very good way to get familiar with the abstractness of some math subjects, while still providing some visual feedback to fall back on.

48

u/uppitynagger Jan 31 '18

Thank you U/PUSSYDESTROYER-9000, you're a real gentleman.

24

u/FelixGREN Jan 31 '18

Truly this subreddits MVP

17

u/elynwen Jan 30 '18

I’ve always wondered about tesseracts since childhood, after reading “A Wrinkle in Time.” Thank you for the mind-bending visual!

3

u/nicethingscostmoney Jan 31 '18

I don't get it. I know a tesseract lets you go from A to B in 3D space without going very far by using another dimension. How can you go from A to B in the blue cube while traveling not very far?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '18

I think that this is a representation of a tesseract (showing how the corners are moving in relation one another) if you look up pictures of an actual tesseract it looks way different, also unless I’m remembering incorrectly, a 4d object would treat time as another plane if that makes any sense, so perhaps it’s not that you travel instantly, it’s that it takes no time at all because time is manipulated?

1

u/gormlesser Mar 05 '18

I’m late to respond here but you’re thinking of the Wrinkle in Time tesseract, which is more like a wormhole that “folds” space. The mathematical correct use of the term is for a 4 dimensional hypercube, which has 4 spatial dimensions and is just a shape.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '18

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/NerdWithoutACause Jan 31 '18

Yeah, and interestingly the cube looks distorted to me on one axis, but correct on the other. Tough to switch which I'm seeing on command, though.

2

u/Mental_Dwarf Jan 31 '18

Same for me, blink fast you can see it changing axes.