A Treatise on the Fourth Dimensionality of a Twinkie
by Peter Cozmyk
The human brain is a powerful biological computer. It is able to assimilate vast quantities of information. Our biological computer is fast too, but even it has it's limitations. One of those limitations is the imagination. It is easy to imagine that we are a knight in shining armor, or a fairy princess. That is because we have read stories about them and learned about it in our history books. When faced with a difficult concept, however, it is often not so simple. Imagining things like infinity or nothingness can be mind boggling. It is safe to assume that it is very difficult and sometimes impossible for the human brain to imagine something outside its realm of experience. Keeping this in mind, we will explore the limits of our imagination when we study the fourth dimension. An excellent example of fourth dimensional behavior is the Hostess Twinkie. Although we cannot see a fourth dimensional object in our mind, we can clearly see using logic and scientific thought that the fourth dimension does indeed exist. Imagine for a second that you are a one dimensional being. That means you can travel in only a straight line. You can go straight forward, or straight backwards. Let's imagine that in this 1-D land, all the line people that make up the land face in the same direction. No one can ever look the other one into the eye. They can only see each other's backside as shown below.
If the line in front, which we will call white eye, wanted to prove to Blue Eye that the second dimension is real, then he would have to do something very convincing because Blue Eye is a skeptic. Since everyone in 1-D land faces to the right, White Eye figures that if he could travel into the second dimension, and face the other direction, that it would convince Blue Eye. So he begins to rotate into the y-axis, or second dimension as shown below.
When White Eye does this it freaks Blue Eye out because to Blue Eye, White Eye has vanished. Blue Eye, being a one dimensional entity is limited in all bodily functions, including vision, to the first dimension. Blue Eye has no idea where White Eye has gone, until suddenly he reappears again, but this time, he is looking Blue Eyes eye to eye. White Eye has now proven that the second dimension does indeed exist. The one dimensional government will of course cover it up to try and protect the one dimensional people from knowing the truth. White Eyes found this out shortly after he was visited by one dimensional men in black.
This new found enlightenment could only be stifled for so long. Soon everyone knew of the 2nd dimension, and new characters such as the square and circle came into existence. One day Box was walking along, when he met his friend Cyclops. Cyclops was only a 1D line, but he frequently traveled in the 2nd dimension. One day he went up to Box, a huge skeptic of any scientific findings. He told Box that he could prove that the third dimension existed as well as the first and second. Box was appalled that Cyclops could say such a profoundly stupid thing. Nonetheless, he accepted Cyclops's challenge and told Cyclops that if he could travel into the third dimension, then he could get inside his walls without breaking their plane.
Cyclops accepted Box's challenge, and immediately traveled into the third dimension, or z axis, or out of the paper to the reader. Box was befuddled when, right before his eyes, Cyclops vanished. Box was very confused because he didn't know where Cyclops had gone. Cyclops could of course see box because box was in a lesser dimension, but Box, being limited to 2nd dimensional eyesight could not see it.
Suddenly, Cyclops reappeared, but to Box's amazement, he was inside of his walls.
Cyclops had just disappeared and reappeared right inside of Box. Box was now a believer, and Cyclops had proven that the third dimension exists. Like before, however, Cyclops will soon be visited by 2D men in black. Once again, however it is for our protection.
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