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I was inspired by a story that describes an event where many people die on a large industrial ship, and the 'cover up' story stated that the ship entered the 4th dimension, and when the ship appeared back in the 3rd dimension (visible to any normal person again), the crew were fused into the walls and mangled together, all deceased.

I want to incorporate the idea of these pockets of 4 dimensional space into my world, where you can enter an area and travel through the 4th dimension. Perhaps unintentionally to create a catastrophic event (like described in my inspiration story), or intentionally once people in my world understand how these pockets work.

My question is: how do these pockets form, realistically? In addition, would you be able to accidentally move into the 4th dimension, or would these pockets be obvious and observable from the outside perspective?

Just to clarify, in my mind I am thinking of 4 spatial dimensions, but in practice I don't think(?) it matters if the 4th dimension is spatial or temporal. Correct me if I am wrong here.

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  • $\begingroup$ Title of q formulated as imposibe situation, but body is quite good. I would suggest to change title to reflect content of the body, like "how [something something] objects from 3d space enter and exit 4d space" it also not a great way but last part is more essencial $\endgroup$
    – MolbOrg
    Commented May 27, 2021 at 19:34
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    $\begingroup$ Do the exercise with a 2D universe (à la Flatland). What would be perceived / what would it mean to move in 3d? $\endgroup$
    – spectras
    Commented May 27, 2021 at 19:34

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Not an expert, but I have watched Flatland. These pockets could be invisible to 3D-bound creatures. There might be some warning of it, but nothing that screams "4th-dimensional loophole!" I think you could absolutely accidentally move into them.

To take a page from Flatland, image you're a 2D creature living on a piece of paper. If there's a hole in the page ahead of you, you may not be able to tell, and when you move over the hole, you will fall through, into the 3D dimension. As soon as you're in that 3rd dimension, anyone in the 2D plane would think you just disappeared.

How would they form? In String theory, there are 10 or 11 spatial dimensions(depending on the theory). These other dimensions have all "curled up," meaning they've basically become irrelevant to us 3D humans. Maybe a local effect has disrupted the curling up of those dimensions, making the 4th dimension suddenly useful again.

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