A Rip In The Dimension

Chapter 1 : The Cave

Mike and Kevin were walking home from school. Mike and Kevin are both 10 years old, and Mike is very good at math. They’ve been friends for a long time.

“Hey Mike, do you want to come to my house? You can help me with my math homework.”

“Yeah, so what do I get out of the deal?”

“You can see the cool hiding place I found.”

“What’s so interesting about it?”

“It’s a cave.”

“Does it have stalagtites and stalagmites?”

“No, but it’s very long and narrow. I’ve never gotten to the end of it.”

“When should I come over? 3:00, 4:00?”

“3:00 sounds good.”

Soon after he got to Kevin’s house, Mike started helping Kevin with his homework.

“Hey Mike, what’s 1/7 in decimal?”

“1/7 equals .142857.”

“What is the square root of 5?”

“2.236, because 2.236 x 2.236 equals 5.”

“What’s the cube root of 16, 777, 216?”

“The answer is 256.”

“How did you figure that out in your mind so quickly?”

“I used the cube root formula.”

“Ok, ok, lets just go explore the cave, because we don’t need math in there!”

“You never know when it would come in handy.”

The two boys left Kevin’s house by the back door. Kevin had a big yard. They headed off into the wooded section that was located near the creek. Kevin knew exactly where to go, where the bushes grew close together. There was a dark area, and it was the mouth of a cave.

When they got to the cave, it was a lot like what Kevin said.

“Hey Kevin, you were right. This cave could be two miles long, and it’s so narrow that I have to crouch down. Kevin, you look troubled. What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing, it’s just that for a split second I thought the seconds on my digital watch were going a little too slowly.”

“Kevin, it’s probably because we’re in a cave, and that watch runs on a solar panel.”

As they got deeper into the cave, it got colder and scarier, and odd things started to happen.

“M…m…m…Mike, I’m c…c…cold!”

“Here, take my jacket.”

“Thanks, Mike. MIKE, you’d better see this! My watch! The milli-seconds are moving like normal seconds! It’s like time is slowing down!!”

Chapter 2 : Through The White Light

“That’s impossible! Kevin, even though your watch runs on a solar panel, it would still never do that! Kevin, this cave is getting weirder by whatever your watch says seconds are…”

“Mike, I don’t need your jacket any more, it’s warmer.”

“Ok, ok, first it’s cold and scary, then your watch thinks time is slowing down, and now it’s warmer?! Geez, what next, is it going to get brighter?”

“Mike, look, it’s getting brighter!”

“Nice try, Kevin. I’m not falling for that.”

“No, it really IS getting brighter, look ahead at the white light!”

“Now, I have got to see this. Come on, Kevin.”

The two boys ran towards the white light until they were right in front of it.

“Wow! What do you think is behind it, Mike?”

“Probably more cave.”

“Well, there is only one way to find out, and that is to go through the white light.”

Chapter 3 : The Fourth Dimension

The two boys walked into the white light.

“Mike, it’s so bright that I can’t see you, all I see is white!”

“Same thing here, Kevin. Lets go forward, we don’t want to stand here all day… or to your watch, all second.”

They walked through the white light, and found themselves in a strange environment. They weren’t in the cave anymore. They were in an open area. Neither boy could describe it.

“Mike, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Yes, I am. It looks like we’re in a supercomputer! Kevin, of all the times that you called places weird names, this time you’re right.”

“Mike, exactly where are we?”

“I don’t know, Kevin.”

“Mike, my watch stopped completely!”

“Oh great, now we’re frozen in time in some Supercomputer Place.”

“Mike, it doesn’t look like we’re frozen in time, everything is moving.”

“Well, Kevin, lets go look for something to tell us where we are.”

“Mike, I don’t think we’re going to find a sign that says ‘You Are Wherever’.”

“Well, can you think of a better thing to do?”

“No, but what’s the likelihood?”

“I thought I was the one who would always say that!”

“Ok, Ok, Mike, I’ll start looking. Mike, what’s this?”

“Wow! That’s a pretty weird looking polyhedron. ”

“What’s a polyhedron, Mike?”

“It’s a three dimensional polygon.”

“Oh? So what type of polyhedron is it?”

“It is an icosatritetrahedron.”

“An ico-what?”

“An icosatritetrahedron , or a polyhedron with twenty-four faces. Wait! Twenty-four faces? Kevin, you’ve picked up a hyper-cube!! Do you know what that means?”

“No.”

“That means that I know where we are! There is only one possible place. Kevin, we’re in the Fourth Dimension!! ”

Chapter 4 : The Impossible Is Possible

“Wait a minute, Mike. How did we get to the Fourth Dimension - through my cave?!? ”

“I think at the end of your cave there was a rip in the dimension. That would mean that when we went through the rip we were transported into this fourth dimensional universe, Kevin.”

“Wait! We’re in another universe, Mike?!?”

“Yes, we are. You see, our universe is made up of three dimensions : length, height, and width. This universe is made up of four dimensions : length, height, width, and something else. So, it’s impossible for us to be in the Fourth Dimension unless we’re in another universe.”

“What IS that ‘something else’ that makes four dimensional things four dimensional? ”

“THAT is the question which scientists have been thinking about for millions of years.”

“So… what are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do? After all, we’re in the Fourth Dimension. Don’t you think we should explore a little?”

The two boys explored the amazing details of the Fourth Dimension until they found one thing that was familiar.

“Hey Mike, look, I see a vendor selling something.”

“Well, lets go see what he’s selling.”

The vendor looked like an ordinary human being, but what he was selling was certainly not ordinary. The two boys walked up to listen to what he was saying.

“Impossible triangles! Get your impossible triangles right here! One hundred percent impossible! Only five cents each!”

“Hey Mike, look - that vendor is selling impossible triangles for a nickel, did you bring any money?”

“No, I don’t have any money so I’m afraid we can’t get one, ’cause money doesn’t grow on trees”

“Um Mike, you want to re-think your answer after you turn around?”

The boys turned around and saw a tree with nickels growing on it.

“Well, Mike, what do you say now?”

“I’d say ’lets go buy an impossible triangle!”

Mike picked a nickel off of the nickle tree and bought an impossible triangle.

“Wow! This triangle really is impossible! How is it possible?”

“Remember, Kevin, we’re in the Fourth Dimension. Here, the impossible is possible.”

Chapter 5 : The Journey Home

“Hey Mike, I think we’d better go home. It’s getting kinda’ late.”

“No it’s not. Remember, earlier you said your watch wasn’t moving at all.”

“So? I still say it’s getting kinda’ late.”

“Here’s another reason why we can’t leave yet. Where did we come in?”

“Uh oh… that’s a good question.”

“Well, did you bring any three dimensional object with you that might help?”

“Nope, just pocket lint and a compass.”

“Wait a minute, Kevin. You brought a compass to another dimension!?”

“Yeah. So, how’s that gonna’ help us?”

“In the Fourth Dimension there is no magnetic field. That means that the rip in the dimension leads to our three dimensional earth, which does have a magnetic field. So, the compass will only point toward the rip!”

“Well, then, lets see where it’s pointing.”

The two boys opened the compass and looked at it.

“Well gee, this was no help. The compass is spinning in circles.”

“That means that the rip is moving.”

“Well then, how are we going to get to it?”

“Lets go in different directions and see if the spinning slows down.”

First, the boys went North, and the spinning got faster. They went South, and the spinning got faster. They went West, and the spinning got a lot faster.

“Well, Kevin, there’s only one direction that it can be, and that’s East.”

The boys walked East, and the spinning got slower and slower until it stopped spinning and pointed in one direction.

“Look Mike, it’s pointing SouthEast, and I can see the bright white light again!”

“Well, lets GO!”

The boys went through the white light again, and found themselves in Kevin’s yard.

“Uh oh, I’ll bet my mom was worried about where I was.”

Mike went home and Kevin went rushing into his house. He rushed up to his mom and said, “Mom, I’m ok, sorry I kept you worried for so many hours…”

“What do you mean, Kevin dear, you just got home from school.”

“What do you mean I just got home from school? Mike and I went into a cave and we ended up in the Fourth Dimension, and we found some weird stuff, and we used a compass, and came back.”

“Well, somebody has a wild imagination.”

“Well, if you don’t believe me, then what’s this?”

Kevin pulled the impossible triangle out of his pocket.

“Oh my goodness! I’d better go show this to Dr. Lawson. Meanwhile, you’d better get started on your homework, you’ve got a lot of work to do.”