Now this light brown higher solid has for boundaries: first, the ochre
cube in its initial position, second, the same cube in its final
position, 1 and 3, fig. 103. Each of the squares which bound the cube,
moreover, by movement in this new direction traces out a cube, so we
have from the front pink faces of the cube, third, a pink blue or
light purple cube, shown as a light purple face on cube 2 in fig. 103,
this cube standing for any number of intermediate sections; fourth,
a similar cube from the opposite pink face; fifth, a cube traced out
by the orange face—this is coloured brown and is represented by the
brown face of the section cube in fig. 103; sixth, a corresponding
brown cube on the right hand; seventh, a cube starting from the light
yellow square below; the unknown dimension is at right angles to this
also. This cube is coloured light yellow and blue or light green; and,
finally, eighth, a corresponding cube from the upper light yellow face,
shown as the light green square at the top of the section cube.
The tesseract has thus eight cubic boundaries. These completely enclose
it, so that it would be invisible to a four-dimensional being. Now, as
to the other boundaries, just as the cube has squares, lines, points,
as boundaries, so the tesseract has cubes, squares, lines, points, as
boundaries.
The number of squares is found thus—round the cube are six squares,
these will give six squares in their initial and six in their final
positions. Then each of the twelve lines of the cube trace out a square
in the motion in the fourth dimension. Hence there will be altogether
12 + 12 = 24 squares.
If we look at any one of these squares we see that it is the meeting
surface of two of the cubic sides. Thus, the red line by its movement
in the fourth dimension, traces out a purple square—this is common
to two cubes, one of which is traced out by the pink square moving
in the fourth dimension, and the other is traced out by the orange
square moving in the same way. To take another square, the light yellow
one, this is common to the ochre cube and the light green cube. The
ochre cube comes from the light yellow square by moving it in the up
direction, the light green cube is made from the light yellow square by
moving it in the fourth dimension. The number of lines is thirty-two,
for the twelve lines of the cube give twelve lines of the tesseract
in their initial position, and twelve in their final position, making
twenty-four, while each of the eight points traces out a line, thus
forming thirty-two lines altogether.
The lines are each of them common to three cubes, or to three square
faces; take, for instance, the red line. This is common to the orange
face, the pink face, and that face which is formed by moving the red
line in the sixth dimension, namely, the purple face. It is also common
to the ochre cube, the pale purple cube, and the brown cube.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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