After the descriptive part of Gardner’s coming to the
church, it begins to get into the Fourth Dimension explaining. “Our cosmos—the
world we see, hear, feel—is the three-dimensional ‘surface’ of a vast, four-dimensional
sea” (151). Gardner describes that only a select few from our current time will
be able to see the fourth dimension, all the rest of us must imagine it.
However, it seems as if there is a magical dimension
where everything is analogous to a hyperworld. Slade, the man who is alike a
pastor or priest, stated that only in all five dimensions can we truly
understand knowledge and ourselves. It is in this realm that we learn who God
is, and how close to God people truly are. In a way, the fourth dimension, “4-space,”
is affiliated with Heaven. By converting the neutrons that fell on one side, to
an asymmetrical antiparticle, the presence of the fourth dimension can be seen.
When Gardner begins to speak to Slade, I
learned that the church practices in the, “geometrical fourth dimension,” laid
by Plato. The religion links science and traditional Christianity together as
one, which I found fascinating. Slade describes the process of moving to an
after world almost like saving something to a computer. All the memories we
make on the planet in our human bodies, will only be saved onto a hard drive,
which can be kept and transferred to ourselves in a higher place. In this case,
it would be the fourth dimension.
Slade shows Gardner a couple of tricks from his late
great uncle. Slade tells him to write something that he cannot duplicate
somewhere on the leather he pulls out. The leather is cut into three strips.
After Gardner places his initials in one corner of the leather, Slade put the
leather under the table and transforms it into a braid. The true magic isn’t
that an old man just braided three pieces of leather, the magic is that the
trick seems nearly impossible in the basic third dimension. It makes one
question if Slade had to go to 4-space to do it. When you look in the answers
and find that the trick is nothing more than a special knot that is taught to
almost every English Boy Scout, all the magic is lost. Slade’s second trick was
nothing short of brilliant. He had Gardner hold a box with a flat rubber band
inside. The box was taped ad marked so that the boxes couldn’t be switched out.
When the trick is done, the tape is still secure on the box, but the rubber
band inside is twisted. The trick requires two separate boxes, one with the
untangled band, and one that is knotted. There was a mere switch between boxes
before the X was marked on top of the box.
It really upsets me that events in this chapter didn’t
actually happen. Finding out that there is no church, pastor Slade doesn’t
exist, but Henry Slade does, made me mad. It’s almost like unwrapping a new
phone box at Christmas, only to find there are socks in it. It made me question
which parts of the chapter are real and trustable, and which parts were intensified
for the stories sake. I enjoyed the chapter because it connect religion and math
and science together, which is something that is very hard to do well. This chapter also made me realize how little I
learned from geometry. I had to google what an unfolded hyper cube was, it’s practically
a 3D cross, and I struggled with the terminology.
I thought this chapter was a nice break from all the complicated math theories that had been explained in the others. The structure of this chapter was more of a story than an actual theorem or mathematical problem. Another aspect that made this chapter stand out to me was how theoretical it was. Most of the chapter is about Reverend Slade and his explanation over this 4th dimension where the kingdom of God is located, but there is no actual proof that it does exist, and since there’s no proof of it’s existence this is where all the unproven theories in math and science are “kept”. I found it very interesting how Slade blended science, math and religion so pleasantly.
ReplyDeleteI was a little thrown off after reading the Addendum and realizing that this story, although based of some real persons, was completely made up. Thinking about though, the story did seem rather fictional with the service in an underground auditorium with a spiral staircase and fancy lights. The whole concept of the story, however, was still interesting to me; the fact that mathematicians and scientists created a fourth dimension to explain things that cannot be proven is reassuring to beliefs that I have. Overall, I found the chapter rather interesting and enjoyable to read.
I found Chapter 12: The Church of the Fourth Dimension to be the most abstract chapter I have yet to read in this book. Not only was it the most abstract, but I also thought it was most interesting. Discussing religious concepts such as the fifth dimension and other intriguing topics such as the tricks that were played on the reader made the chapter completely different from the others that I have read. It was nice to read a story instead of try to make sense of a confusing math equation. To go into further detail about the “dimension” topic of this chapter, I thought it was very bizarre to hear about the fourth and fifth dimensions. Thinking about something this abstract in the context of math was a refreshing change. The fourth dimension is not a place that a human can physically go to on planet earth, and there is no real proof it exists. That being said, it is something that people just assume, just like religion. On top of the dimension topic are the tricks that are explained towards the end of the chapter. Slade makes the claim that he goes to the fourth dimension, but really he just has his tricks that after explained make complete sense in the third dimensional world. All in all, I enjoyed this chapter and liked the change in context.
ReplyDeleteI found this chapter a change of pace to many of the other chapters I've read so far. As Courtney mentioned, the tying together of math, science and religion is a bit refreshing from the usual various mathematical problems and chapters. This chapter also reminded me of a movie that was recently released called Interstellar. The movie portrays a man in the future who goes on an outer-space adventure to find a new world to possibly live in for the human race. During his travels through space, he encounters the fourth dimension. This fourth dimension is very similarly described by Gardner in the book. It is relatable by being somewhat associated with heaven, as the character in Interstellar faces what seems to be death, but in turn, enters the fourth dimension. The text and the movie also relay the same idea of the fourth dimension being somewhat of a memory storage. The character in Interstellar uses this fourth dimension to save a younger-self and in all, the planet. This chapter reminded me of the movie and because of the visuals I was able to see watching the movie, it gave me a better understanding and visual aid of what the author writes about in this chapter. The chapter forces the reader to think about something as outlandish as a fourth dimension and brings up the thought of not knowing what the universe really has to offer.
ReplyDeleteConsidering a dimension outside of our own physical world is a concept that I feel is very difficult for a lot of people. As humans, we tend to look for proof, something that can be touched or seen, to help us understand things that are beyond our immediate comprehension. The third dimension is described as the physical, earthly things - that which can be seen, felt, heard, our "cosmos", etc. - and the fourth dimension encompasses the concepts of God, faith, and things relating to belief in a higher, almighty muse that is all-knowing and all-powerful. I found it very intuitive of Slade to mention his viewpoint, which says:
ReplyDeleteOur bodies are simply three-dimensional cross sections of our higher four-dimensional selves. Obviously a man is subject to all the laws of this world, but at the same time his experiences are permanently recorded - stored as information, so to speak - in the 4-space portion of his higher self. When his 3-space body ceases to function, the permanent record remains until it can be attached to a new body for a new cycle of life in some other 3-space continuum.
Slade mentions that there are only a select few people who can reach and actually understand the fourth dimension. Although we discover he is a fictional character, I believe there is a lot of sense and truth in his alleged words.