The spacial dimensions are easy to visualize. A Cartesian Coordinate System (credited to René Descartes) in three-dimensional space is an ordered triplet of lines (axes), any two of them being perpendicular; a single unit of length for all three axes; and an orientation for each axis. Each axis becomes a number line.
To get from one location to another in the same coordinate system all I need is a direction and distance (vector). In the Cartesian Coordinate System, a vector can be represented by identifying the coordinates of its initial and terminal point. For instance, the points A (x1,y1,z1) and B = (x2,y2,z2) in space determine the free vector AB.
I intuitively understand and live in a four dimension universe, but for the life of me I can not visualize four dimensions. But when Susan asks me to meet her somewhere, I get a coordinate for all four of those dimensions (i.e., corner of Brambleton Ave.(x), and Monticello Ave.(y), on the third floor of the old post office (z), at 2:15pm (t), which I promptly forget. The path I take to get there is not a straight line. Of course, if I wanted to go from Earth to Mars, then my starting point and my destination move through time and space during my travel interval (requires a little more planning, but still within my Newtonian grasp).
But if I wanted to go see Abraham Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address, then I would need some serious coordinate help. If I went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, I would miss the speech by about 53,861 days. Not only that, but since the Milky Way Galaxy moves at about 600km/s, Earth has shifted about 2.7 trillion km towards the Great Attractor. Luckily, Einstein gave us a spacetime coordinate system, so that I can find my way.
A Particle also inhabits a portion of spacetime. A particle such as a photon 'ocillates', and this action exhibits itself as a frequency. The frequency of a photon determines its nature. The electron in the Protium atom 'orbits' the proton (inhabits an electron shell). The Protium electron has a velocity that is relativistic and should exhibit time dilation, etc.
 |
| The Protium electron oscillates through a field around the proton. (Simplified in two dimensions) The electron orbit exhibits a sinusoidal pattern as it moves through time. |
Quantum physics tells us that the particle exhibits a wave-particle duality. There is no reason to doubt that it is a particle of matter, so something else is going on. The particle has been dimensionalized (phased), and exists in folds of time dimensions. The particle sets up a wave pattern of 'probabilities'. They are real, but are called probabilities because they can 'collapse', or dephase, to a point particle when required (Quantum Decoherence). Decoherence occurs when a system interacts with its environment in a thermodynamically irreversible way. The timeline that will define our view of the present depends on how we slice the spacetime diagram.
