tesseract etymology

Etymology of "Tesseract":

The word "tesseract" was coined by American mathematician and physicist Charles Howard Hinton in 1888. It is derived from the Greek words:

  • "tetra-" (τετρα-), meaning "four"
  • "-tessar-" (-τεσσαρ), a root of the word "tetra-"
  • "-act-" (-ακτ), meaning "ray"

Meaning of "Tesseract":

A tesseract is a four-dimensional cube, analogous to a cube in three dimensions or a square in two dimensions. It is a geometric figure with eight cube-shaped faces, 24 edges, and 16 vertices.

Origin of the Concept of "Tesseract":

  • In the 1840s, German mathematician Bernhard Riemann developed the concept of a "Riemannian manifold," which allowed for the possibility of spaces with more than three dimensions.
  • In 1873, William Kingdon Clifford explored the idea of a "hypersphere" in an article titled "On the Space-Theory of Matter."
  • Hinton, inspired by Clifford's work, coined the term "tesseract" in his 1888 book "A New Era of Thought." He described it as a "four-dimensional space bounded by six squares."

Popularity and Applications:

  • Tesseracts have been featured in literature, art, and science fiction, including in H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" (1895) and Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" (1962).
  • In mathematics, tesseracts are used to study higher-dimensional geometry and topology.
  • In physics, tesseracts may have applications in theories of spacetime and quantum gravity.

tesseract relate terms

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