The term “spacetime” and the concept of time being the “fourth dimension” appear to contradict each other. Is time actually a 4th dimension, or are all dimensions captured in time?
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Spacetime has three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. Time isn’t the “fourth dimension” because these dimensions are not in any order.
The concept of spacetime is used because space and time are intertwined. Up until special relativity was discovered, they were thought to be separable. The distance between any two points was thought to always be the same, as was the time interval between any two events. Distances can be shortened by travelling close to the speed of light. Events that appear to coincide, but happen at different locations can appear to occur at different times. Observers may not even agree on the order in which they occur.
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