However, the concept that the shapes depict actually occurs in three dimensions. In two dimensions, the smaller sphere spirals into the depression formed by the larger very quickly; in three dimensions, the planets fall toward one another without spiraling together except over billions of years (Feynman, 1995). Even more astonishing than having visualized gravity independently, Einstein visualized traveling along on a beam of light in four dimensions that also included the dimension of time, which allowed Einstein to deduce fundamental properties of space, time, and their interaction for the first time in human history. Nearly a century later, what began as visual "thought experiments" in one man's mind continue to be monumentally important in modern science and human history and affairs on earth and beyond earth.

Applications of Three-Dimensional Rotation in Chemistry and Biology:

The ability to mentally visualize three-dimensional shapes and their movement is also applicable in chemistry and biological sciences (Atkins, 1995). Specifically, the age of electron microscopes revealed that whereas atomic motion is a function of quantum mechanics, molecular motion is largely a function the three-dimensional geometry of molecular shape (Atkins, 1995). In that regard, the molecular bonding processes exhibit relationships that are equally intuitive (such as the way certain molecules fit together in matched "male" and "female" pairs). But molecular bonding also reveals...

Those concepts have already been incorporated into medical research into understanding various aspects of genetic illness. In some of the newest research modalities, the ability to perform mental visualization of the type represented by mental rotation research requires individuals with that talent more than ever (Atkins, 1995).
Finally, the results and implications of this study are also important to the understanding of human cognitive intelligence. According to many contemporary educational theorists, human intelligence actually represents a much broader concept than the way it has been defined previously. In those newest formulations of human intelligence, one of the components specifically emphasized is spatial ability and its relation to human learning (Gardner, 2000).