Closed Doors (Ongoing)

Shapes

We all have come across different shapes in our lives. But all those have either been 2-dimentional or 3-dimentional. What we are going to be discussing today is about 4-dimentional shapes. I will try my best to not make this part sound prosaic, and instead make it as engaging as possible.

So around 2 years ago, I had come across a beautiful sci-fi story titled "Star, Bright" by Mark Clifton. It was about a 3 year old toddler having such an exceptional scientific and mathematic inclination, that she possessed teleporting capabilities. It was in this story that I found out about the 4-dimentional shapes. And for these 2 years, I was convinced that these shapes were just a fit of imagination, but I was wrong. I looked these up on google, and they are, in fact, real. Believe me or not, some of these are really interesting, and as someone who was obsessed with sci-fi at a point, I was blown away by this information.

Let us start with the simplest of them all-
1. Möbius strip- Before I begin explaining what it is, I would want you all to bring a rectangular strip of paper and make this shape with me. Once you have it, try to make a circle by joining the two ends. Now twist only one end so as to flip it, and then attach the ends. The shape you have now, is a mobius strip. This strip has no beginning nor an end. And hence, it is known as an non-orientable shape. 
This strip has been really useful in architectural and designing spheres. You must have noticed the google drive icon. In case you haven't, go have a look at it! You will find 3 folds which overlap on both the sides- inside and outside. This is basically a mobius strip. Even the recycle icon is a rendition of the same shape. Who could have known that a 4D shape was in existence since so long and we all had no clue of it.
Did you know that this strip was discovered in 1858? That was more than 150 years ago! Fascinating, isn't it? Who could have thought that we could actually make 4 D shapes this easily? 
2. Klein bottle- Yet another interesting 4D shape, which can be easily made by inserting a pipe inside of itself. Originally made by making a bottle with a narrow, flexible and really long mouth which is inserted inside of itself, creating a never-ending loop of itself. Similar apparatuses are found in London's science museum. 

Of course there are many more such shapes, for the list is endless. I just wanted to bring some of these to you all. In case you found this part boring, I'm sorry for that, but I couldn't help it. Science and mathematics have always been subjects of my interest and thus this was just miraculous in my opinion. I guess, it means that we are another step closer to building a time machine. Who knows!?