The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained

Abstract

THE fourth dimension and non-Euclidean geometry have achieved a prominence quite unprecedented for mathematical topics. In train, bus and tram, over lunch and at the theatre, intelligent man is discussing the fundamentals of his physical consciousness. Mathematicians have sprung a surprise on the man in the street-and on one another, and the former has some reason to complain. He remembers, perhaps with pain, the tyrannical ukases of Euclid, and, if he did not acquire an enthusiastic love for the old Greek, he was at any rate pleased to think that the puzzles of geometry had been settled by something approximating to incontrovertible authority; he was grateful that he need not worry about the doctrine of parallels, or the three angles of a triangle, or about the up and down, to and fro, right and left. Suddenly the man in the street finds himself floundering in a morass of sceptical ignorance.

The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained.

A Collection of Essays selected from those submitted in The Scientific American's Competition. Pp. 251. (London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1921.) 7s. 6d. net.