The Fourth Dimension: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Fourth Dimension, credited to Charles Howard Hinton, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Fourth Dimension by Charles Howard Hinton. Read in English by Peter Yearsley "Mr Hinton tries to explain the theory of the fourth dimension so that the ordinary reasoning mind can get a grasp of what metaphysical mathematicians mean by it. If he is not altogether successful, it is not from want of clearness on his part, but because the whole theory comes as such an absolute shock to all one's preconceived ideas" - The Bristol Times (quoted within the book). This book was published in 1912. The author is attempting to communicate a very complex interweaving of philosophy and mathematics, and it is often difficult to follow his train of thought. However, it is hard to refute his idea of a four dimensional universe passing through and, in a way, creating our three dimensional one. For sections 1-9, the reader attempted to describe the illustrations in the text, but as the pictures were getting more complex, a separate PDF of illustrations was created, copied from the pages of the book. The file HintonIllustrations.pdf can be downloaded from this page. (Summary by Peter Yeasley)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Fourth Dimension
• Author credits: Charles Howard Hinton
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 29
• Listed recording duration: 9:05:03

Catalogue topics

• nonfiction
• mathematics

Opening tracks: first 24 of 29

1. 01 - Preface; Chapter 1 - Four Dimensional Space — 13:15
2. 02 - Chapter 2 - The Analogy of a Plane World — 21:06
3. 03 - Chapter 3 - The Significance of a Fourth Dimensional Existence — 15:40
4. 04 - Chapter 4, part 1 - The First Chapter in the History of Four Space — 21:23
5. 05 - Chapter 4, part 2 - The First Chapter in the History of Four Space — 19:00
6. 06 - Chapter 5, part 1 - The Second Chapter in the History of Four Space — 11:22
7. 07 - Chapter 5, part 2 - The Second Chapter in the History of Four Space — 19:16
8. 08 - Chapter 5, part 3 - The Second Chapter in the History of Four Space — 14:56
9. 09 - Chapter 6, part 1 - The Higher World — 17:04
10. 10 - Chapter 6, part 2 - The Higher World — 16:59
11. 11 - Chapter 7 - The Evidence for a Fourth Dimension — 18:16
12. 12 - Chapter 8, part 1 - The Use of Four Dimensions in Thought — 14:02
13. 13 - Chapter 8, part 2 - The Use of Four Dimensions in Thought — 13:50
14. 14 - Chapter 8, part 3 - The Use of Four Dimensions in Thought — 16:34
15. 15 - Chapter 9, part 1 - Application to Kant's Theory of Experience — 14:59
16. 16 - Chapter 9, part 2 - Application to Kant's Theory of Experience — 17:59
17. 17 - Chapter 10, part 1 - A Four-Dimensional Figure — 12:39
18. 18 - Chapter 10, part 2 - A Four-Dimensional Figure — 10:32
19. 19 - Chapter 11, part 1 - Nomenclature and Analogies ... — 16:34
20. 20 - Chapter 11, part 2 - Nomenclature and Analogies ... — 17:41
21. 21 - Chapter 12 - The Simplest Four-Dimensional Solid — 35:29
22. 22 - Chapter 13, part 1 - Remarks on the Figures — 26:42
23. 23 - Chapter 13, part 2 - Remarks on the Figures — 22:15
24. 24 - Chapter 14, part 1 - A Recapitulation and Extension of the Physical Argument — 27:15

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.