Instant travel?

[moonlord]

Well, theoretically you can. Practically, at this level of the technology, it's impossible. But we rephrain ourselves from making suppositions about the future.

[Eproht Evad]

Would it be possible to travel instantly in time by bending matter in the 4th dimension? like here's an example:

A B

whats the quickest distance between these to points? In the 3rd dimension it would be a straight line. However in the fourth dimenison couldn't you fold the paper (this isn't really a piece of paper but imagine that it is) to make the points touch, eliminating distance?

Actually theres a book out there called By the Light of the Moon and one of the characters in it can actually do what you said, and "fold the paper" making point A and B being right next to each other as well as time points.

[sup2069]

Think of it this way: 3D person B picks up 2D person A from a point on his 2D world and places him down three feet away from that point. To person A, he has just teleported three feet, because he cannot view or comprehend 3-dimensional travel. Now think of it the same way with the 3rd and 4th dimensions. 4D person C picks up person B from Chicago and places him down in Miami. To person B, he has just teleported.

How large are tetrabeings? If they are hundreds of our height, then I could see them moving us that great of a distance, in fact picking us up. If they are our size or smaller, how could they pick us up. How long would it take them to move us? It all would depend on the amount of folds our dimension has in that particular area. There would be no point in using the fourth dimension as a medium if it would not decrease travel time.

[moonlord]

We don't yet know the size of tetrabeings, we don't even know if they exist (if atoms can form).

[WalkingEagle]

Ok...

a stupid question from someone who isn't a mathematician, nor a physicist:

What about the theory about "folding space"? In some SF stories (EVENT HORIZON) it is called that and they used a "gravity drive" to do it. Is such a thing possible now on a theoretical basis? What would the energy need be to produce such a mode of travel? Is there research being done concerning this?

[papernuke]

yea probably could happen cuz if you go into the fourth dimension, it is all the places in the 3rd dimension are accecible to you because the fourth dimension touches everything in the 3rd. it would be called a terrasect by the way

[jinydu]

No, the tesseract is the 4D analogue of the cube in 3D. Furthermore, being in 4D doesn't allow you instant access to everyplace in 3D, any more than being 3D allows you instant access to anyplace on a 2D floor.

[cannon_gray]

Maybe wormholes, if someday they would be proven.