4D - Imagining the 4th spatial dimension

Report on Radio3Scienza of 1.11.2012 (Paolo Conte)

.Article on XlaTangente: http://www.xlatangente.it/upload/files/Over%2025/Fuoribordo/Articolo4d.pdf

The audiovisual technology has made familiar terms such as 2D or 3D. But does it make sense to talk about 4D , that is a fourth dimension? As in the novel Flatland , in which a square discovers the third dimension , the workshop is based on the idea of imagining higher dimensions from the lower ones. How can a 2D being think a 3D world ? And then , similarly, how can we, 3D beings, imagine the fourth spatial dimension ? Exhibits and interactive activities guide us into this path: shadows, soap bubbles, laser sections, geometric models to be constructed, videos, artworks , and even strategy games in 4D !

Concept: Cesco Reale (Festival of Mathematical Games ), Roberto Giunti (Liceo Leonardo di Brescia), Piergiuseppe Cassone (Confindustria Bergamo)

Realisation: Luciano Franceschi ( CEMEA Veneto )

Scientific review : Etienne Ghys ( Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon)

With the support of the Festival of Science.

Thanks to:

– Gigamic (France) and Oliphante ( Italy ) , for providing the games Cubulus ;

– Jos Leys (Belgium) for the coordinates of solids for CAD drawings ;

– Shai Nathan (Israel ) , shai_nathan@msn.com , for the realisation of the CAD drawings ;

– Serge Droz (Switzerland) , for 3D prints ;

– Gian Marco Todesco , for providing some programs .exe about the fourth dimension ;

– Marine Schweitzer (France) , for sections of solids for the flipbooks ;

– Stefania Ritzu Lalia , for the panels on the fourth dimension in the art ;

– Nicola Reale , for the layouts ;

– Adrian Tanner ( Esperantujo ) , for providing the game AnaKvataro (Connect 4D) of his own invention ;

– Alessandro Cattaneo , for technical support ;

– And the fantastic team of scientific explainers : Marco Caselli, Emilio Esposito, Margherita Redavid and Laura Tozzo.