THE FOURTH DIMENSION SIMPLY EXPLAINED

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As stated above, it would be possible to rotate the right hand in the fourth dimension about a plane and thus reverse it and make it coincide with its companion left hand. And because rightand left-handedness is not found in the mass (that is, in mountains, clouds, continents, etc.), but only in the minute (such as is produced in plants and animals and by molecular action), some believe that evidence of this additional dimension must be sought in the region of molecular and cellular activity. There are two forms of tartaric acid which appear to be identical in every particular except that one turns the plane of polarized light to the right while the other turns it to the left. The righthanded changes into the left-handed without any apparent decomposition and without any apparent manifestation of force. If it can be shown that the change does take place thus, the phenomenon would be proof that the fourth dimension does exist. In a surface there can be only three points which are equally distant from each other. In space, as we know it, four points and no more can be so arranged. In space of four dimensions five points can be thus placed. Now, in organic chemistry, it has been found that certain substances have the same formulas. For example, there are at least eight possible alcohols which have the formula C5H12O. The only way that chemists have of accounting for these different compounds is by supposing that there is a different grouping of the carbon, or C-atoms in each compound. If now it
Page 152 should become necessary to the explanation of a compound to suppose that five carbon atoms in it are equally distant from each other, this would be evidence of a fourth dimension.

Balance, or symmetry in a line can be produced with reference to a single point only. And, if that point is selected at random, in the line, the symmetry, or balance, can be accomplished by carrying a portion of the longer part of the line through the second dimension around the point and attaching it to the end of the shorter part. Balance, or symmetry, in a surface, can be produced with reference to a line only. And if that line is selected at random in a figure in the surface, the figure may be put into symmetry only by carrying parts of the longer portions of the figure through the third dimension around the line and attaching them to the shorter portions on the other side. In a similar way we know that there is three-dimensional symmetry, or balance, with reference to a plane. We see it manifested in the formation of crystals, and in right-and left-handedness, or bi-symmetry of plants and animals. Does this not at least indicate the probable existence of a fourth dimension? And, finally, Prof. Hinton in developing his mechanics of the fourth dimension came to the conclusion that the mechanics of four-dimensional vortices explain the electric current -- a phenomenon hitherto unexplained. He has thus furnished the most direct evidence yet found that space does contain a fourth dimension. In the seventh book of the "Republic," Plato imagines a group of prisoners chained at the mouth of a cavern. All movement is impossible to them. Their

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