The Fourth Dimension (book)

The Fourth Dimension is a non-fiction work written by Rudy Rucker, the Silicon Valley professor of mathematics and computer science, and was published in 1984 by Houghton Mifflin. The book is subtitled as a guided tour of the higher universes. The foreword included is by Martin Gardner, and the 200+ illustrations are by David Povilaitis. Like other books by Rucker, The Fourth Dimension is dedicated to Edwin Abbott Abbott, author of the novella Flatland.

Synopsis

The Fourth Dimension teaches readers about the concept of a fourth spatial dimension. Several analogies are made to Flatland; in particular, Rucker compares how a square in Flatland would react to a cube in Spaceland to how a cube in Spaceland would react to a hypercube from the fourth dimension.

The book also includes multiple puzzles.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews called it "animated, often amusing", and a "rare treat", but noted that the book eventually leaves mathematical topics behind to focus instead on "mysticism of the all-is-one-one-is-all thinking of an Ouspensky."[1] The Quarterly Review of Biology declared it to be "nice", and "at times (...) enchanting", comparing it to The Tao of Physics.[2]

References

  1. ↑ THE FOURTH DIMENSION: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published October 8, 1984; retrieved June 27, 2018
  2. ↑ [Scott Ferson, "The Fourth Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality. Rudy Rucker ," The Quarterly Review of Biology 61, no. 1 (Mar., 1986): 166.; https://doi.org/10.1086/414894


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