Can anyone imagine time being 3-dimensional and space being 1-dimensional?

Answer 1

• In mathematical sense time and space are linear orders. That means you can always say if something happende befor or after another event. Same is with space. According to how much space dimesions you have you can always tell if on thing is located befor or after another one, related to a given coordinate axis. The difference between time and space is simply that matter and energy can only go one way in time dimensions but at least (according to the number of space dimensions) 2 ways in space dimensions. We as we live in a 3-1 spacetime can move on three axis of space in both directions and on one time axis in one direction.

First view if you imagine a 1-3 spacetime is that your space is just a endless line, if your spacetime is open, or a line of certain lenght, if it is closed. That causes that you as observer could either be a point (zero dimension) or a line of certain lenght (dimension >1).

Further you have three overlapping or "paralell" time dimensions. For simplicity we assume they are directed in the same way, otherwise our construct would become really unthinkable.

We also start with only 2 time dimensions. Now every point on our time axis is connected with another time axis. That leads us to the fact that a point of matter we observe in our spacetime can be at one time at different places on the space axis, because one point of time would include a lot of extra time (on the 2nd axis, and that for every point) to f.e. move. With three time dimensions it would be the same, only that every point in time of the 1st time axis is connectet another 2nd axis and to every point of that is connected a third axis.

That is not very unthinkable because it is similar to what we observe in quantum physics. There we have not a exact location of the observed object, f.e. electron, but a probability density. This is because the quantum System is not at only one point at one time. Finaly your 1-3 spacetime would be a linear space, closed or open, where probability densities of points, lines or objects between that could exist.

Even though I think no workable physics could be constructed on such a space, if it isn´t embeded in another spacetime (F.e. String theory thinks of such 1-space dimensiond objects to represent fundamental particle embeded in the 4d spacetime we "see" every day).If we assume that such a space time was also created by a big bang singularity, it could also be that the 3 time dimensions run from the singularity symmetrically into the future direction and into the past direction. Because of the opposite direction of this runs they "never" meet except in the singularity and are also not really there opposites past or future.

• An article in Nature suggested that time would freeze to an end, while space continues to elaborate. That would mean that they cannot be coupled through observation as straightly intercommunicative. Imagining time as 3-dimensional and space as 1-dimensional is an exercise our brain does not seem to cope with easily. The question that pops up, in this case, is : 'Than what do you observe ? Time ?, How does it look like ?, Oh, it is just an experience. So you can go back and forth, observing 1-dimensional space. Being subdued by this unilateral space and able to do what you want in time ?? I certainly cannot observe only a 'line', going forward on this line and do whatever I want with time. Neither can I 'remember' the future but I can imagine both the past and the future, though. Remembering, I can only do with the past. That comes back to the question, what is reality ? In dreams, we mix them all up, and sometimes we experience them just as real, just because in our imaginative reality, we cannot fast forward either. The brain is fed, and that needs time. Which still is not the same as going forward in time relative to the contents of the dream. I cannot start my dream with its outcome and end with its beginning, or both would be reversely defined. Time and matter particles are intercommunicative in our observation. Time defines before and after the event of matter. The intrensicity that defines reality trapped in our conciousness-perception makes it virtually impossible to turn tables on both dimensions. Could our defined reality observe us ? Shouldn't it need a brain to do that ? Like looking mirrors, always and everywhere. Mirrors which are not defined by a conciousness as we know it. It is almost insane trying to imagine this. I think, that is why electrons are everywhere at the same time. So I am trapped. Can anyone help me out here ? Can it have anything to do with the fact, that the reversing of a vase falling to the ground in a video, never can be reality. Just because natural laws, like gravity, are also subdued to time in their direction ? If the opposite were true, there would be anti-gravity, therefore no atmosphere, and no life, no planets. There would be no electro-magnitism, but electro-anti-magnitism. Particals in space would never have clustered, but rejected from others. And even more, there would probably never have existed matter, only anti-matter. Because matterparticals would never had clustered into matter, only exceeding from each other, depending on the anti-magnetic force. So matter would never have developed into its present diversity. Maybe, anti-matter would have been the norm of formation, and the Universe would have evolved into an anti-matter form, and perhaps also an anti-timal evolutionary stade. At this level, one can only speculate by the imaginary. I continue to think about it, but people who have a larger conciousness than the one I am trapped in, would probably find a more logical and acceptable explanation.

  Thx in advance for every response helping me out.

• This is an appauling mind bender and really depends on your definition of time. Time in the sense that most of us use it is an experience we use it to explain our lives and consciousness i.e like the passage of time. However if your are talking about space-time i.e. time and space being exclusively linked then that is something else. When your dreaming your not truly conscious so you don't experience time but time has passed. We use our clocks to show this but universe (space-time) has expanded. Time and Space started at the big bang and end at the big crunch unless the universe is cyclic or open ended. Now in truth time could exist in dimension we cannot experience but in the case it is most likely that these are attached to additional dimensions of space other than the three we 'see'/expereience. Hope that helps somewhat but in truth there no such thing as an expert on time but i suggest trying to ask another cosmologists.

Answer 2

In theories like string theory, dimensions are seen as flexible and can be interconnected. However, in our everyday experience, time is thought of as the fourth dimension and space is seen as having three dimensions. Switching the dimensions as you proposed would require a reimagining of the fundamental nature of our universe.