THE FOURTH DIMENSION SIMPLY EXPLAINED

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dimensions. As a mental conception, the fourth dimension exists, but the world of our physical experience includes only the three-dimensional.

[1] See Introduction, page 28. Page 163

XIV. THE TRUE AND FALSE IN THE THEORY OF FOUR DIMENSIONS. BY "PERGE DECET" (PERCY WILCOX GUMAER, URBANA, ILL.)
Oftentimes, a theory that is advanced in good faith by some distinguished authority falls into disrepute, because it is appropriated by less intelligent persons and is modified or extended to suit some non-related hypothesis of their own. To mutilations of this character the theory of four dimensions has become a sad victim. The idea originated as a pure mathematical concept, capable of symbolic representation, but quite incapable of being visualized. This may be illustrated by a similar concept found in the use of negative numbers. The individual who subtracts 7 from 3 and gets negative 4 has a mathematical conception of its meaning. He does not, however, infer the actual existence of a negative number of objects. It is easy to conceive that when four trees in a garden are cut down there are four of them missing, yet no person can picture to himself minus four trees, because the mind can visualize only such quantities as result from actual counting. This lack of material existence, however, does not deter anyone from using negative numbers as a short cut in his calculations. In a similar way, the idea of four dimensions may be used in mathematical calculations and without any implication as to the existence of such a space. Mathematical reasoning has taught us many of the
Page 164 peculiar properties of this much-discussed space. These properties were appropriated by Zllner and others as explanations of the phenomena of spiritualism. These persons said that spirits live in a space of four dimensions, and that we human beings who are confined to three dimensions are not sensible of their existence except as they choose to enter our limited space. These statements they have attempted to prove by means of the geometric properties of a four-dimensional space.

In this wise, the unwarranted extension of a mathematical concept has given the lay reader a much perverted idea of the fourth dimension, and it is the purpose of this article briefly to distinguish between the theory as rightfully advanced by mathematicians and the popular conception of the theory after it has been altered to suit the hypothesis of the spiritualists. In all branches of study or enterprise the mind is greatly aided by concrete representation. Drawings or photographs are indispensable accessories in many branches of industry. No contractor would attempt to erect a building without first securing the drawings for it. So, too, in

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