/sci/ - Science & Math

/thread

A theory from a MATHEMATICAL standpoint regarding time travel.

I) For motion to exist in one dimension, it seems that one higher dimension must exist.

Basically if you want a point to move up and down a line (a 2 dimensional system) you can't do that in 2 dimensions- you need 3. One could display this as 'time' (it annoys me when people constantly refer to the 4th dimension as 'Time'; though technically and probably true, I work with 4th dimension in topology where that doesn't matter a lick) to allow the point to move. Good? Good.

II) Time travel is motion through what is probably physically the fourth dimension, therefore a 5th dimension must exist as a medium for this travel. One could measure the 5th dimensional space and divide it by the 4th dimensional space to find the 'speed' of the time travel.

Therefore paradoxes cannot exist, since each time travel operation requires a different 5-space.

One could make a 5-space machine and try to create a paradox, but then it's a different point in 6-space.

I believe a problem with this could very well be that we currently understand the universe to not have infinitely many dimensions, and this notion of travel requires infinitely many dimensions- unless there is some dimension past which travel is impossible.

Does anyone understand what I'm saying? I'm willing to debate or try and explain it a different way. I'm not usually good with explaining my mind...

So I recently read Flatland and wanted to know what /sci thinks of the fourth dimension (not time!).

Also, anyone care to comment on the book itself, I read the most recent version.