There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. In the 1960s Rod Serling’s deep voice intoned that familiar mantra to introduce his popular TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling’s spooky pronouncement was clearly an invitation to enter the world of the weird. But to mathematicians, the journey to a higher dimension is about as mundane as a trip across town in a taxi. They travel routinely not only to the fifth dimension but also to the seventh, the tenth, and the twenty- sixth. It’s nothing special, says Albert Marden, director of the Geometry Center in Minneapolis. To a mathematician, it’s an everyday event.
Why would mathematicians want to leave the comfort of our familiar three-dimensional world? Because, curiously, by poking their heads up into higher dimensions, they can get a clearer view of complex problems- -they can see relationships that look hopelessly tangled in the squashed ...
