Speculations on the Fourth Dimension: Selected Writings of Charles .H. Hinton

by Charles Howard Hinton, Rudy Rucker (Editor)

Why should there be only three dimensions in space? Do we have a four-dimensional existence, but are we not conscious of it? If there are four dimensions, why not more than four—up to an infinite number? Pursuing such questions as these, Charles H. Hinton (1853-1907) speculated brilliantly on the idea of the fourth dimension, and in his best writings—which have here been brought together for the first time in one volume—he can finally be recognized as one of the most entertaining speculative thinkers of the turn of the century.

Genres: Science, Philosophy, Mathematics

204 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1980

About the author

Charles Howard Hinton was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled Scientific Romances. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension. He is known for coining the word "tesseract" and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions.

Reviews

[Tamara Mayo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was literally my introduction to higher dimensional thinking.

This is not a book for amateur readers, I'll be honest. Hinton really takes time and care to try and coax your brain into understanding and "visualizing" how the 3rd dimension would relate to the 4th by having us imagine life and the properties of a plane world.

If you're really interested in the concept of higher planes of space, this is the best book to start with. Then books like "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku will make more sense.

[Kitap Yakıcı · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough nut, and not simply because of the challenging nature of the subject matter. Hinton suffers from that stilted, affected writing style of the late 19th century which has heretofore kept me from exploring the ideas of many of his (more or less) contemporaries. Evidently Hinton wasn't simply interested in understanding the fourth dimension merely in an intellectual sense but wanted to develop an intuitive appreciation of how everyday three-dimensional objects behaved as if he could perceive their four-dimensional aspects. He used a set of cubes, appropriately enough called "Hinton cubes," to cultivate his ability to imagine the four-dimensional counterpart to the three-dimensional cube, the hypercube or tesseract. He goes on various intellectual flights of fancy ("speculations") connecting this intuited fourth dimension to occult topics of his day, explaining apparent miracles and exploring various religious and philosophical subjects. Weird stuff, which explains the Rudy Rucker connection. It's definitely worth reading, if you are into that sort of thing and are up to the slog through Victorian prose.

[Zelkami · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this one sadly. I've read and comprehended other authors influenced by this, but Hinton's writing style is basically impenetrable to me. Rucker's intro and footnotes were the only thing I could really understand. His own book, The Fourth Dimension, and A.K Dewdney's Planiverse, explain these concepts much more succinctly.

[Bess Kurzeja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering little cubes