Alex McColgan

Now what captures my imagination about this is that this same thing happens in real life.

According to Einstein's theories of relativity, objects travelling at great speeds in 3D space would appear from an external observer to flatten in the direction of their travel.

This squishing effect happens exactly in line with this model and is to do with time dilation.

However, from the person who's travelling's perspective, they do not flatten, but it is the rest of the universe that warps.

I talk about this in greater depth in another video of mine, where we can see the effects of spatial warping in a computer model.

From their perspective, everything would stretch at the edges of their vision, while their destination would seem further away, which is again what this model would predict.

The only difference is that in this model we're just exploring a 2D object stretching, so the stretch is only in one direction, while in real life it's 3D, which means it stretches in two directions instead.

But that is what you might expect as you turn away from our conventional three dimensions and start orienting yourself away from time.

But if this is correct, so what?

Why does it matter?

If time is truly a direction, then it deepens our understanding of the universe.

It also raises more questions.

What is the force that pushes us ever forward in time?

Why does it seem that we can never move against it?

Although in this model there is no reason why a vector could not point downwards, in real life that doesn't seem to ever happen.

This model also answers the question of, if time is a direction, what is our shape in time?

Does part of us protrude into the past or into the future?

According to this model, that does not happen.

We are flat pancakes in the fourth dimension, pennies that look round when you look at us head on, but revealing our thinness when we turn away from you.

That's a strange thought, but it may just be true.