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Story about a 4 dimensional creature attacking earth



It's in a similar vein to Flatland, except in 3D. A 4D creature attacks Earth, using its 4-dimensional capabilities to its advantage. The protagonist defeats the creature by staking it to the ground. I'm fairly sure it's a well known story but the name evades me.




Answer



Might be "The Monster From Nowhere" by Nelson Bond (1939). The detail of capturing a four-dimensional creature by impaling it is mentioned in a summary of the story by Michio Kaku in his book Hyperspace, on pages 75-77 which are available on google books here:



Suddenly, the answer came to him: If a Flatlander were to try to capture our finger as it poked its way into Flatland, the Flatlander could stick a needle through our finger, painfully impaling it to the two-dimensional universe. Thus Patterson's strategy was to drive a spike through one of the blobs and impale the creature in our universe!



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