The only way I have ever been able to make any sense at all of time being a 4th dimension, is to think of it loosely like an axis. In addition to x y and z, there is a time axis.
If I have a jar sitting on the table, then it is situated in space at certain coordinates, relative to some origin of course. How long it's been sitting there, would be the time axis.
If you take a 2d circle, and extrude it parallel to any axis, you'll get a cylinder. So in a way, the jar's existence is being extruded through time. This analogy breaks down though when you consider that I might move the jar, or the jar could fall to the floor and shatter into a thousand pieces. It would be really weird, this extrusion, because things move about and they change over time. The only thing I have ever seen is a 3d block extruded into the 4th dimension, but from a 3D perspective (because that's what we're limited to):
Dimension_levels.jpg
I guess the metaphor of "axis" and "dimension" can really throw you off in attempting to grasp this idea. I'm not really sure if it's either. There is a possibility I believe, that the universe could be weirder and stranger than we can possibly imagine.
If I have a jar sitting on the table, then it is situated in space at certain coordinates, relative to some origin of course. How long it's been sitting there, would be the time axis.
If you take a 2d circle, and extrude it parallel to any axis, you'll get a cylinder. So in a way, the jar's existence is being extruded through time. This analogy breaks down though when you consider that I might move the jar, or the jar could fall to the floor and shatter into a thousand pieces. It would be really weird, this extrusion, because things move about and they change over time. The only thing I have ever seen is a 3d block extruded into the 4th dimension, but from a 3D perspective (because that's what we're limited to):
Dimension_levels.jpg
I guess the metaphor of "axis" and "dimension" can really throw you off in attempting to grasp this idea. I'm not really sure if it's either. There is a possibility I believe, that the universe could be weirder and stranger than we can possibly imagine.
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