4-Dimensional Periodic Table of Elements
I’m a big fan of the 11 dimensions that Michio Kaku has proposed in M-theory. But 11 dimensions aside, let’s at least explore the 4th dimension a bit more.
For the purpose of this, I want to eliminate time as the 4th dimension, so we can explore another dimension.
Tangent: There’s so much I want to discuss about the 4th dimension… like how the sum of all positive integers is -1/12 (negative one-twelfth), which only starts to make sense to me when I consider how other “infinities” seem to behave when we move into the 4th dimension (like visualizing a hypersphere in 3 dimensions). 3Blue1Brown on YouTube has a GREAT video for visualizing quaternions (4d numbers) with stereographic projection that I think illustrates this concept in a very nice way.
But, OK… back to the periodic table of elements.
Something that I believe we will uncover in the next 100 years, is a 4-Dimensional Periodic Table of Elements.
I believe that we will begin to discover the different properties that each of our elements have when we observe them in 4 dimensions instead of just 3. For example, when we observe a hypersphere in stereographic projection (video above), we can see more of what’s happening in 4-D space.
If we believe that 4-D space exists, then it seems likely that our elements are not merely 3-dimensional, but likely, at least some of them, are 4-dimensional as well. How do they interact with each other in 4-Dimensions and how can we use that to our advantage?
What if we can move atoms in and out of the 4th dimension and that allows for better nuclear fusion?
At some point in time, we will be able to categorize all of the atoms and their respective impacts on 4-D space the same way that we have in 3-D space, and that will unlock an entirely new frontier for us to improve things.
We’re already starting to look at 4-dimensional electrons (Dirac elecrons) and I believe we will one day be able to categorize our entire period table of elements accordingly.
The biggest difference here being that I don’t believe we will need to move atoms in and out of the 4th dimension… I believe they already ARE in the 4th dimension… it’s just a matter of studying how that movement in the 4th dimension impacts our 3-dimensional world.