The discussion centers on the concept of time as the fourth dimension, particularly in the context of relativity and spacetime. Participants agree that while time is often treated as a dimension in the framework of General Relativity, it is not strictly a spatial dimension. The book "General Relativity from A to B" is recommended as a valuable resource for understanding the nuances of spacetime. The conversation highlights the complexity of dimensionality and perception in different dimensions.
PREREQUISITESStudents of physics, educators in the field of relativity, and anyone interested in the philosophical implications of time and dimensionality.
Time is treated as part of a unified 4-dimensional "spacetime" in relativity (shouldn't this have been posted in the relativity forum?), but for technical reasons I don't think it's quite right to treat it as a fourth spatial dimension, see this thread for some discussion. On your other thread you asked for book recommendations and one I offered was General Relativity from A to B, this is a very good nontechnical introduction to the meaning of "spacetime" and why it makes sense to say that time is treated as a "dimension".-=Red=- said:So do we know for sure what the 4th spatial dimension is? I have read in many places that it is time. I would say this makes sense because we are perceiving time in 3 dimensional slices in our dimension. The same way a 2D being would perceive 2D slivers of a 3D object in its own dimension.