Difference between revisions of "Three-dimensional space (mathematics)"

Latest revision as of 13:44, 22 May 2016

Three-dimensional space (also: 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three parameters (values) are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point).

This is the informal meaning of the term dimension.

Physics and mathematics

In physics and mathematics, a sequence of n numbers can be understood as a location in n-dimensional space.

When n = 3, the set of all such locations is called three-dimensional Euclidean space. It is commonly represented by the symbol ℝ3.

This serves as a three-parameter model of the physical universe (that is, the spatial part, without considering time) in which all known matter exists.

However, this space is only one example of a large variety of spaces in three dimensions called 3-manifolds.

In this classical example, when the three values refer to measurements in different directions (coordinates), any three directions can be chosen, provided that vectors in these directions do not all lie in the same 2-space (plane).

Furthermore, in this case, these three values can be labeled by any combination of three chosen from the terms width, height, depth, and breadth.

See also

• 3D science and technology (disambiguation)
• 3-manifolds
• Dimensional analysis
• Distance from a point to a plane
• Geometry
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Point (mathematics)
• Skew lines #Distance
• Space
• Three-dimensional graph
• Two-dimensional space

External links

• Three-dimensional space (mathematics) @ Wikipedia