---
title: 'One Dimensional Balls'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=4DaETxhoAxg'
video_id: '4DaETxhoAxg'
date: 2026-08-27
duration_sec: 162
channel: 'Vsauce'
---

# One Dimensional Balls

> Source: [One Dimensional Balls](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4DaETxhoAxg)

## Summary

This video explores the mathematical concepts of spheres and balls across different dimensions, starting with familiar 2D and 3D examples and extending to abstract higher-dimensional and zero-dimensional cases. It clarifies the distinction between a circle (a 1-sphere) and a disk (a 2-ball), and between a sphere (a 2-sphere) and a ball (a 3-ball), showing how these concepts generalize.

### Key Points

- **Circles vs. Disks** [00:03] — A circle is a pure circumference with no interior; it is one-dimensional because only one number (angle) is needed to locate a point. A disk includes the interior and is two-dimensional, requiring two numbers (angle and distance from center).
- **Spheres vs. Balls** [00:31] — A sphere (like Earth's surface) is two-dimensional, requiring latitude and longitude. The sphere plus its interior is a ball, which is three-dimensional.
- **Unified Concept** [00:57] — Circles and spheres are the same geometric concept—the set of points equidistant from a center—extended to different dimensions. Mathematicians call a circle a 1-sphere and a sphere a 2-sphere.
- **Balls in Higher Dimensions** [01:23] — A disk is a 2-ball, a solid sphere is a 3-ball. The skin of a 4D ball is a 3-sphere, and the skin of a 5-ball is a 4-sphere, and so on.
- **Zero-Spheres** [01:48] — A zero-sphere is a set of two points at a fixed distance from a center in one-dimensional space. It contains two locations but no way to move between them.
- **One-Dimensional Balls** [02:17] — A one-dimensional ball is a line segment. The video humorously suggests that every point in your body can be paired and connected by line segments, making you a 'one-dimensional ball pit'.

### Conclusion

The video elegantly demonstrates how geometric concepts like spheres and balls generalize across dimensions, from the familiar to the abstract, and even playfully applies them to the human body.

## Transcript

Sure, [music] we usually think about and draw them on two-dimensional surfaces, kind of thing [music] in a zoo, doesn't mean it is a zoo. This is a circle, but this is [music] not. A circle is pure circumference. There's nothing inside of
you only need one number to locate any point in it. Now, if you want to talk and its interior, well, now you're talking about a completely different geometric object that mathematicians sometimes call a disk. [music]
Unlike a circle, a disk has two dimensions because you need two numbers to locate a point in it. You need to know how far around the point is and how deep inside it is. Similarly, only two numbers are needed to identify any
particular point on a sphere like this one, latitude and longitude. So, this is The only thing here that is three-dimensional would be the sphere [music] and the space inside it, but that's not a sphere. That's what
mathematicians call a ball. Circles and spheres have a lot in common. For >> when embedded in one dimension more than they are, they're both just the collection of all points equally distant from a center point that's [music]
outside of them. So, in other words, circles and spheres are the same geometric concept [music] just extended to different dimensions. And for that reason, mathematicians sometimes just give them the same name.
They call this a two-sphere and this a one-sphere. [music] Similarly, spheres and the spaces inside them are called balls. So, a disk would be a two-ball and this would [music] be a three-ball. The skin of a
four-dimensional ball would be a three-dimensional sphere. The skin of a five-ball would be a four-sphere and so on. But, can we imagine a zero-sphere?
No problem. Of course, we can. Just as we so often do with two-spheres and zero-dimensional sphere in in space that is one dimension So, a one-dimensional Simply choose a center and a radius, and the zero-dimensional sphere will be
every point that is that far away from the center. So, these two points. That's it. This is a zero-dimensional sphere. Two separate dots. Zero-spheres are freaky. They contain two different locations, but nowhere to go. And of
bound, we get ourselves a one-dimensional ball. This means that every line segment [music] is a one-ball. If you imagine pairing up every mathematical point in your body, and then connecting those points with a
line segment, everything will finally make sense. You have been a one-dimensional ball pit your entire life.