It’s common to hear time referred to as the fourth dimension, an assumed complement to the three dimensional space we are used to. With length, width, and height must come a unidirectional flow of time. However, this assumption of time as a truly independent companion to space seems to be a fallacy.

Three dimensional space correlates to properties of physical matter in a dependent sense. If one of the three spatial dimensions is removed, matter does not behave in a way our universe permits. Time does not correlate directly to physical matter in this same sense. With time removed from the picture, matter can still behave as it would in the universe we know. Yet, this doesn’t mean time is not valid alongside the spatial dimensions. Time is more of an epiphenomenon of matter and energy interacting in three dimensional space. That is to say, time is embedded within matter-energy…