History Main / MoreThanThreeDimensions

* A real life example of this trope is found in numerous attempts to explain how gravity works. To put it in lay terms, gravity is really freaking weird. So weird, in fact, that the simplest way to explain the effects it has on time, space, and matter seems to be that it operates in additional directions than the three we can access. Theoretical models range anywhere from 5 dimensions (our three, time, and wherever the heck gravity is) to 11 (which would make our understanding of space look like a toddler's drawing if you could see all the dimensions that exist).

* In ''[[Literature/{{Animorphs}} The Andalite Chronicles]]'' Elfangor explains [[SubspaceOrHyperspace Z-space travel]] in an AsYouKnow speech that includes a mention that normal space has ten dimensions. However, for most lifeforms only the first three (length, width, depth) are actually visible; the other seven are curled up inside themselves in ridiculous fashion and can't be perceived.

One of the earliest explorers of the idea of 4+ spatial dimensions was mathematician and ScienceFiction author Charles Howard Hinton, who coined the term "tesseract", a four-dimensional cube. It's worth noting that ''any'' mention of a tesseract in fiction is practically a stock example of this trope. Hinton also coined the terms "ana" and "kata"[[note]]From Greek roots meaning "up toward" and "down from" respectively[[/note]], now frequently used to refer to movement along the axis of a fourth spatial dimension (in the same sense as up/down for height, left/right for length, and forward/backward for width).

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' features six-dimensional travel, enabled by pushing on a gyroscope in just the right way.

* A plot point in Creator/RobertAHeinlein novel ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand''. Michael Smith, a human born on Mars and raised by Martians, has the ability to send objects to an unknown fourth dimension that is "ninety degrees away from everything else". He disappears two government {{Mooks}} by sending them to this mysterious dimension. Later, when he establishes a new religion with a FreeLoveFuture as one of its central tenets, he uses as part of his show a little stunt in which he makes people's clothes disappear, sent to the fourth dimension.

* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' features unseen higher dimensional entities going through a lot of trouble to provide higher dimensional travel for humans on a dying earth.
** One scene in particular has Them attempt to illustrate their perception of time by mapping the timeline of a specific point of space three dimensionally as a tesseract that can be navigated ana and kata.

* The first season opening narration of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' starts as follows: "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man."
** Also the series episode "Little Girl Lost" deals with a girl who falls through a portal to the fourth dimension that pops into existence next to her bed.

** One scene in particular has them attempt to illustrate their perception of time by mapping the timeline of a specific point of space three dimensionally as a tesseract that can be navigated ana and kata.

* The title character of ''Literature/TheBoyWhoReversedHimself'' is part of a family with a secret: they hold the knowledge of how to move in the directions of ana and kata, the fourth dimensional equivalent of up and down. The story deals extensively with the ramifications of what this would allow one to do: Just as a stick figure who learned to rise off a page and into the third dimension could step over two-dimensional barriers and access the inside of closed two-dimensional shapes, a three-dimensional person able to rise into the fourth dimension can access the insides of closed objects and pass through barriers with ease. The drawback? When you fold back into 3-space, you tend to inadvertently reverse yourself, [[MirrorChemistry down to the molecular level]] (Which results in some strangeness like ketchup acting as a powerful mind-altering drug.) The only way to fix it is a second exhausting trip into 4-space. And then there's the bigger problem: 4-space [[EldritchAbomination has residents]].

* The title character of ''Literature/TheBoyWhoReversedHimself'' is part of a family with a secret: they hold the knowledge of how to move in the directions of ana and kata, the fourth dimensional equivalent of up and down. The story deals extensively with the ramifications of what this would allow one to do: Just as a stick figure who learned to rise off a page and into the third dimension could step over two-dimensional barriers and access the inside of closed two-dimensional shapes, a three-dimensional person able to rise into the fourth dimension can access the insides of closed objects and pass through barriers with ease. The drawback? When you fold back into 3-space, you tend to inadvertently reverse yourself, down to the molecular level. This results in some strangeness like ketchup acting as a powerful mind-altering drug. The only way to fix it is a second exhausting trip into 4-space. And then there's the bigger problem: 4-space [[EldritchAbomination has residents]].

* In the world of ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'', there exist 22 dimensions, each with a 'supervisor' that oversees it. The Choushin Goddesses exist in 'hyper-dimension', and created the 22 dimensions as an experiment. This is a major plot point of the third OAV.

* In the world of ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'', there exist 22 dimensions, each with a 'supervisor' that oversees it. The Choushin Goddesses exist in 'hyper-dimension', and created the 22 dimensions as an experiment. This is a major plot point of the third OAV. In this case, it overlaps with {{Another Dimension}}.

* In the world of ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'', there exist 11 dimensions, each with a 'supervisor' that oversees it. The Choushin Goddesses exist in 'hyper-dimension', and created the 11 dimensions as an experiment. This is a major plot point of the third OAV. In this case, it overlaps with {{Another Dimension}}.

* The ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "The Real You" centers on Finn gaining super-intelligence. He inventi a bubble blower that can create two-dimensional bubbles with one-dimensional shadows, three-dimensional bubbles with two-dimensional shadows, and fourth-dimensional bubbles with three-dimensional shadows. That last one just existing [[RealityBreakingParadox creates a black hole]].

* Going in the [[InvertedTrope opposite direction]], the holographic principal is a theory that there are actually only ''two'' spatial dimensions, and either the third or time are an illusory byproduct of the universe existing.

* ''Series/TheJourneyOfAllenStrange'': While wandering around a human high school, Allen overhears a physics class and walks in to "correct" the teacher with Xelan physics, which includes at least fifteen dimensions.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'': In one of the most arcane (and easy to miss) {{Genius Bonus}}es of all time, Dr. Judith Mossman quips about the resistance's superior, if somewhat [[FlawedPrototype unstable and homebrew]], teleporter technology:
--> "If the combine only knew what we were doing with the Calabi–Yau model..."
:: While this moment is easy to write off as mere technobabble, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabi%E2%80%93Yau_manifold Calabi-Yau manifolds]] are a type of N-dimensional shape/coordinate system/mathematical model with...[[AlienGeometries strange]]...properties deeply related to the shape of space, time, and the curled up dimensions found in string theory. See the Other Wiki's article for more details, but for our purposes a Calabi-Yau manifold can be summed up as "a map of the TimeyWimeyBall".
** In the sister franchise ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' there is a related shoutout to this same model in the swirling particles seen when the portal gun is fired: their paths trace out a simple 3d cross-section of a Calabi-Yau manifold. This would seem to imply that either Aperture Science independently stumbled across the same trick, or that the resistance has been attempting to reverse engineer their research based on incomplete notes.

* In the world of ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'', there exist 11 dimensions, each with a 'supervisor' that oversees it. The Choushin Goddesses exist in 'hyper-dimension', and created the 11 dimensions as an experiment. This is a major plot point of the third OAV. In this case, it overlaps with {{Another Dimension}}.
* {{Doraemon}}: There are at least four dimensions in existence, as the titular Doraemon's BagOfHolding is referred to as a "Fourth-Dimensional Pocket".

* The title character of ''Literature/TheBoyWhoReversedHimself'' is part of a family with a secret: they hold the knowledge of how to move in the directions of ana and kata, the fourth dimensional equivalent of up and down. The story deals extensively with the ramifications of what this would allow one to do: Just as a stick figure who learned to rise off a page and into the third dimension could step over two-dimensional barriers and access the inside of closed two-dimensional shapes, a three-dimensional person able to rise into the fourth dimension can access the insides of closed objects and pass through barriers with ease. The drawback? When you fold back into 3-space, you tend to inadvertently reverse yourself, down to the molecular level. This results in some strangeness like ketchup acting as a powerful mind-altering drug. The only way to fix it is a second exhausting trip into 4-space. And then there's the bigger problem: 4-space [[EldritchAbomination has residents]].

* DiscussedTrope in the satirical novel ''Literature/{{Flatland}}''. A. Square is a regular guy who happens to be a square, living in a two-dimensional universe. He is visited by a sphere who preaches to him the Gospel of Three Dimensions. The square is scornful of the idea initially, but eventually the sphere convinces him. When the square talks excitedly of the possibility of a ''fourth'' dimension, the sphere [[NotSoDifferent immediately dismisses the idea as ridiculous]].

-->'''Susan''': ''[About a math problem]'' It's impossible unless you use D and E.\\
'''Ian''': D and E? Whatever for? Do the problem that's set, Susan.\\
'''Susan''': I can't, Mister Chesterton. You can't simply work on three of the dimensions.\\
'''Ian''': Three of them? Oh, time being the fourth dimension, I suppose? Then what do you need E for? What do you make the fifth dimension?\\
'''Susan''': Space.