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3D Work Selection
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Other popular methods of describing the location of a point in three-dimensional space include cylindrical coordinates and spherical coordinates, though there are an infinite number of possible methods.
Another mathematical way of viewing three-dimensional space is found in linear algebra, where the idea of independence is crucial. Space has three dimensions because the length of a box is independent of its width or breadth. In the technical language of linear algebra, space is three dimensional because every point in space can be described by a linear combination of three independent vectors. In this view, space-time is four dimensional because the location of a point in time is independent of its location in space.
Three-dimensional space has a number of properties that distinguish it from spaces of other dimension numbers. For example, at least 3 dimensions are required to tie a knot in a piece of string. Many of the laws of physics, such as the various inverse square laws, depend on dimension three.
The understanding of three-dimensional space in humans is thought to be learned during infancy using unconscious inference, and is closely related to hand-eye coordination. The visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions is called depth perception.
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