Exploring the Dimensions: A Thought Experiment in Architecture

[Feynmanfan]

Dear friends,

I have a friend who studies architecture and has given this difficult task:

<<think of a house of more than 4 dimensions.A small house of 250m2 could act as an experimental probe into an architecture of more than four dimensions; the experiential phenomena of the house will be a crucial factor. The house should also be inhabitable. Materials, from molecular aspects to geometric properties will be important as will space and time. The house will act like a “thought experiment.”
In ‘The Elegant Universe,’ Brian Greene seeks to resolve the incompatibles of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics through String Theory, requiring that we drastically change our understanding of space, matter, and time...>>

Do you have any ideas what this house should look like? Brian Greene describes curious phenomena at the Quantum cafe. Have you come up with any ideas

Thanks for your help

 

[sarahzletterbox]

Help with architectural competition

I am also grappling with creating an house of multiple dimension and am having difficultly comming up with a concept. Please help!
Thank you.

 

[selfAdjoint]

Look up tesseract.

 

[VantagePoint72]

Isn't that from "A Wrinkle in Time"?

 

[µ³]

Well if you were a two-dimensional being and wanted to design a 3-d house a simple solution might be a cube. Each face of the cube would be a room and each edge of the cube would be like a wall with a door through it. Similarly, a tesseract is composed of 8 cubes so each of these cubes could be a room. The geometry would work out such that if you go in a straight line through each room you will eventually end up in the same room.

 

[Prometheus]

Do you have any ideas what this house should look like?

I think that you have answered your own question.

No matter how many dimensions we recognize, there is no requirement that this be the limit on the actual number of dimensions. Say, for example, that there are 11 dimensions, or 26. When you look at your house, it will look as it always has. No matter how many dimensions there are, humans can recognize with their eyes how many dimensions they recognize now. YOur house will look the same.

think of a house of more than 4 dimensions.

Furthermore. what does a 4 dimensional house look like? Are you considering time as the fourth dimension? What does time look like in reference to a house?

 

[Enginator]

I'm sure he is thinking of a 4th physical dimension rather than time.

This 4th physical dimension to us would be similar to the 3rd physical dimension to a 2 dimensional being. A three dimensional being could, say, poke their finger in and out of the 2D world at various places, and at will. The 2D person would see the "circle" of a finger appear and disappear all around them - or even inside them.

So if the 4th dimension is equally odd, it would be a means for a 4th dimensional being to move about our 3 dimensional world at will. But we wouldn't be able to see or comprehend this dimension fully.

However, if you are talking about a mathematical 4th dimension, then the tesseract or the hypercube is what you are looking for.

 

[sol2]

I'm sure he is thinking of a 4th physical dimension rather than time.

This 4th physical dimension to us would be similar to the 3rd physical dimension to a 2 dimensional being. A three dimensional being could, say, poke their finger in and out of the 2D world at various places, and at will. The 2D person would see the "circle" of a finger appear and disappear all around them - or even inside them.

So if the 4th dimension is equally odd, it would be a means for a 4th dimensional being to move about our 3 dimensional world at will. But we wouldn't be able to see or comprehend this dimension fully.

However, if you are talking about a mathematical 4th dimension, then the tesseract or the hypercube is what you are looking for.

Lovely imagery. Could you post more examples

 

[Enginator]

Lovely imagery. Could you post more examples

I can think of one more slight variation. Think about moving completely in and out of the 2D world and what the 2D being would see. It would be something like a MRI, where only a cross section of your body is seen at a time.

Of course, this thought experiment is slightly off. Remember that as 3D beings, we really only see 2D images. So the 2D beings only see 1D images. Everything is a line to them. So us entering and exiting their universe appears as a line or series of lines that expand, contract, then disappear.