Shadows of Reality: The Fourth Dimension in Relativity, Cubism, and Modern Thought
Tony Robbin
Abstract
This book investigates different models of the fourth dimension and how these are applied in art and physics. It explores the distinction between the slicing, or Flatland, model and the projection, or shadow, model. The book compares the history of these two models and their uses and misuses in popular discussions. The book argues that Picasso used the projection model to invent cubism, and that Minkowski had four-dimensional projective geometry in mind when he structured special relativity. The discussion is brought to the present with an exposition of the projection model in the most creativ ... More
This book investigates different models of the fourth dimension and how these are applied in art and physics. It explores the distinction between the slicing, or Flatland, model and the projection, or shadow, model. The book compares the history of these two models and their uses and misuses in popular discussions. The book argues that Picasso used the projection model to invent cubism, and that Minkowski had four-dimensional projective geometry in mind when he structured special relativity. The discussion is brought to the present with an exposition of the projection model in the most creative ideas about space in contemporary mathematics such as twisters, quasicrystals, and quantum topology. The book proposes that the powerful role of projective geometry in the development of current mathematical ideas has been long overlooked and that our attachment to the slicing model is essentially a conceptual block that hinders progress in understanding contemporary models of spacetime.
Keywords:
fourth dimension,
art,
physics,
slicing model,
projection model,
cubism,
special relativity,
twisters,
quasicrystals,
quantum topology
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2006 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300110395 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: October 2013 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300110395.001.0001 |
