interaction with 4th dimension??

[medlakeguy]

ok might be kinda hard to follow but... here goes

if light can be lensed around massive objects because space around them is bent along a fourth dimension (time??) then if you sent something at a massive enough object with enough speed would you go "through" it and end up at the other side by going through a fourth dimension??

[papernuke]

if light can be lensed around massive objects because space around them is bent along a fourth dimension (time??)

Light doesnt bend around massive objects because of the 4D, its because of the gravity-- thats why its called "gravitational" lensing, and not "four dimensional" lensing.
The gravity bends the light around the massive object so the light (to you) isnt really where it really is.

then if you sent something at a massive enough object with enough speed would you go "through" it and end up at the other side by going through a fourth dimension??

No, it wouldnt go through by means of the 4D.
if, for example, you threw a ball (basketball, for example) at a rock the size of the sun at light speed, then, there is a VERY VERY slight chance that it will pass emerge from the other side.
maybe 1/1,000,000,000,000? But, if the object is smaller (this is all based on quantum theories). like.. an electron, and you were able to shoot it through the sun-sized rock, then , there would be a higher possibility that it would go through, but still not like.. 1/2, maybe 1/10,000? i dont know .. but you get my point.. (my point is that you cant get something through an object by means of 4D.

[edit] i still dont know if my figures are right, but i know for a fact that the thing where the objects pass through barriers is called Quantum tunneling.

[medlakeguy]

hmm imagine this as a 1d exaple of gravitational lensing

light (travels straight((comes out on other side))
---------------------------------------------->
____________________..... __________________________
...............space^............|.....|
.......................................|.....|
.......................................|00.|
.......................................^^
..............................massive object (bent space)

sry for the bad text art but am i getting the right idea of whats going on here?? or not at all??

am i at least right about gravity bending space along some other dimension?

[papernuke]

Uhm.. not really. Because, if you were a 1D being, then , you wouldnt be able to use gravitatoinal lensing because the gravity would pull it straight into the "massive" (how can something be massive in 1D?) object, and you wouldnt even be able to shine the light to the left or the right in 1D. In the 3D, gravitational lensing works because it would bend the light either to the top/bottom or the left/right. it would also work in 2D because it would bend to the top or bottom.

[medlakeguy]

oh well im talking 3d space here but 1d was the only thing i could really draw with text... thought it'd be easer to grasp

ill restate

people say gravity "bends" space (the analogy of a bowling ball on a sheet comes to mind) im guessing this implies some kind of fourth dimension
otherwise where would it be bending to, and why the sheet analogy right?

also, and i might be wrong, you can see a distorted view of distant objects that are directly behind a closer, massive object. is this effect related to the 4th (time??) dimension and could something other than light be lensed through a massive enough object?