''The Fourth Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality'' (1984) is a
popular mathematics
Popular mathematics is the presentation of mathematics to an aimed general audience.
The difference between recreational mathematics and popular mathematics is that recreational mathematics intends to be fun for the mathematical community, and ...
book by
Rudy Rucker
Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...
, a
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
professor of mathematics and computer science. It provides a popular presentation of
set theory
Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly conce ...
and
four dimensional geometry as well as some mystical implications. A foreword is provided by
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lew ...
and the 200+ illustrations are by David Povilaitis.
''The Fourth Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality'' was reprinted in 1985 as the paperback ''The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of the Higher Universes''. It was again reprinted in paperback in 2014 by Dover Publications with its original subtitle.
Like other Rucker books, ''The Fourth Dimension'' is dedicated to
Edwin Abbott Abbott
Edwin Abbott Abbott (20 December 1838 – 12 October 1926) was an English schoolmaster, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella ''Flatland'' (1884).
Biography
Edwin Abbott Abbott was the eldest son of ...
, author of the novella ''
Flatland
''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions'' is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Seeley & Co. of London. Written pseudonymously by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dim ...
''.
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
Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii (known in English as Peter D. Ouspensky; rus, Пётр Демья́нович Успе́нский, Pyotr Demyánovich Uspénskiy; 5 March 1878 – 2 October 1947) was a Russian esotericism, esotericist known for his ...
."
[THE FOURTH DIMENSION: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality]
reviewed at '' Kirkus Reviews''; published October 8, 1984; retrieved June 27, 2018 The ''
Quarterly Review of Biology
''The Quarterly Review of Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of biology. It was established in 1926 by Raymond Pearl. In the 1960s it was purchased by the Stony Brook Foundation when the editor H. Bentley Glass ...
'' declared it to be "nice", and "at times (...) enchanting", comparing it to ''
The Tao of Physics
''The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism'' is a 1975 book by physicist Fritjof Capra. A bestseller in the United States, it has been translated into 23 languages. Capra summarized his mot ...
''.
[[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]
See also
*''Hiding in the Mirror'', a similar book by Lawrence M. Krauss.
References
1984 non-fiction books
Books by Rudy Rucker
Mathematics books
{{Mathematics-lit-stub