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Time is a dimension, but not like space

(bigthink.com)
171 points belter | 1 comments | 17 Oct 24 15:29 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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nyc111 ◴[17 Oct 24 15:55 UTC] No.41870842[source]▶
I would really appreciate if people writing these types of articles first give rigorous and unique definitions of space and time.
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blackbear_ ◴[17 Oct 24 17:36 UTC] No.41871770[source]▶
Something like (from Wikipedia):

> In the presence of gravity spacetime is described by a curved 4-dimensional manifold for which the tangent space to any point is a 4-dimensional Minkowski space.

Perhaps? A good way to lose 99% of the readers before the end of the first sentence.

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mise_en_place ◴[20 Oct 24 00:58 UTC] No.41892048[source]▶
Just represent it in a 4x4 multidimensional array that corresponds to the metric tensor.
replies(1): >>41892096 #
hn_throwaway_99 ◴[20 Oct 24 01:09 UTC] No.41892096{3}[source]▶
Yes, that will really pull in the laymen...
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nvader ◴[20 Oct 24 01:58 UTC] No.41892317{4}[source]▶
Reminds me of the mathematician who was asked how he mentally visualizes a 4 dimensional space.

"I simply imagine an n-dimensional space, and then set n to 4"

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1. homebrewer ◴[20 Oct 24 02:07 UTC] No.41892360{5}[source]▶
>>> After Hilbert was told that a student in his class had dropped mathematics in order to become a poet, he is reported to have said "Good--he did not have enough imagination to become a mathematician"

https://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Hilbert.html