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American Museum of Natural History

Physics > Space and Time

SPACE and TIME

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WELCOME TO THE 4th DIMENSION!

Boy on the phone with a speech bubble reading "Where are you?"

Girl on the phone with a speech bubble reading "I'm on an aardvark on the corner of Bern St. and Ulm St."

Boy on the phone with a speech bubble reading "That doesn't answer my question!"

According to Einstein , you need to describe where you are not only in three-dimensional space —length, width and height—but also in time.

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Time is the fourth dimension. So to know where you are, you have to know what time it is.

Boy with a speech bubble reading "So now answer the question... Where are you?"

Your complete answer should be "I'm sitting on a 4-foot-high aardvark at the northeast corner of Bern St. and Ulm St., and it's July 1st, 2002, at 1:23 p.m. on my watch." Einstein called a description that used four dimensions an event.

*By "space," we mean the space that is all around us, not just outer space.

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Colorful all-caps block text reading "It's All Relative" inside of a colorful stadium shape.

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Colorful all-caps block text reading "Everyday Einstein Black Holes" inside of a colorful stadium shape.

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