e a solid body may exist. All real things---’‘So most people think. But wait a moment. Can an instantaneous cube exist?’‘Don’t follow you.’ said Filby.‘Can a cube that does not last for anytime at all, have a real existence?’Filby became pensive. ‘Clearly,’ the Time Traveler proceeded, ‘any real bodymust have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and -Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in amoment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, three whichwe call the three planes of space, and a fourth, Time.”(1-2) To think of time assomething more than just the movement of hands on a clock is fascinating. We aretaught in school that everything is three dimensional but never realize that everything realmust also have duration. This explanation of time and a fourth dimension really got meinto the story and made me think “what if?”. On a side note, I ran across an interesting bit of history as I was researching forthis essay. The story mentions a Professor Simon Newcomb in conjunction with theexplanation on time as the fourth dimension. The time traveler mentions ProfessorSimon Newcomb giving a speech to the New York Mathematical Society only a monthprior on the idea that the fourth dimension was not time but an actual fourthmeasurement of space. According to Professor Newcomb’s theory, if you had a fourthdimension of space, there is room for an indefinite number of universes, all along side ofeach other, as there is for an indefinite number of sheets of paper when they are piled oneupon each other. I found in a speech written by Stephen Baxter and presented at ImperialCollege on February 4, 1996, that Professor Simon Newcomb actually did give thisspeech in December of 1893 to the New York Mathematical Society. H.G. Wells hadread this...
