I watched a video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU1fixMAObI) about extra dimensions, and it was pretty cool. Except then they started explaining things really weirdly and skipping dimensions and stuff, so I decided to rewrite their theory. I've actually been thinking about this for a while, and I came up with stuff for up to the 5th dimension, mostly based on what I wanted to happen in my story and also some on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. Anywho, here's what I had before the video:
A point is 0 dimensions. Stretch it out and you get a line, or 1 dimension. Stretch that out and you get a plane, or 2 dimensions. Then you can stretch that out into 3 dimensions, what we're used to. All that is pretty boring. Then if you take space and "stretch" it out, you get more than one version of said space, along another axis: the 4th dimension. This is what we call "time."Each object is a kind of long blobby thing extending along the 4th dimension. If it were stationary, it would be a straight blob. If it started moving, it would bend. I came up with a version of the 4th Dimension/Time theory that seemed to solve all the time paradoxes- if all the long people-blobs and object-blobs that are stretched out along the 4th dimension are "already there," how could you change anything by going back in time and shooting your grandpa? All that would do is turn out to be what already happened.One way to think of this greater-than-3-dimension stuff is to get rid of all the lower dimensions until you have 3 again- at this point that would leave us with a 2D world, so imagine some cartoon characters on a piece of paper, and then make them thicker along the line perpendicular to the paper. As they move across the paper, their 3D worm thing bends and has a diagonal segment.After lots more thought and discussion and thinking up cool scenes for my story, I decided the 5th dimension is full of future branches of possibility. If someone didn't know what color of shirt they would wear the next day yet, that day would branch into several days, each holding that person with a different shirt color. Because something that simple would require a different branch, there would be tons and tons of different possible futures all tangled up "in front" of us along the 4th dimension, spread out across the 5th.Back to the grandfather paradox, if you went back in time and shot your grandpa, there would be another branch in which you weren't born. So the guy that shot your grandpa didn't come from that branch. He came from another one, and he's "you" at this point, which starts messing with your concept of "I." :O Of course, the "you" from the possibility where you were born is now in the branch that he wasn't born, but that's not a problem because he just has his blob thing circle back around and into that branch. If you manage to get back to your own time and possibility, that blob would just have a kind of squiggly thing in it.That's as far as I got. But after seeing the video, I put 2 more in (more like 1.5). Imagine the 4th and 5th dimensions as a flowchart on a piece of paper, with each point being a _possible_ moment. Then make tons of those papers with flowcharts and stack them. Each paper is a universe, with all its possible happenings. That means that if you move "up" or "down" (along the 6th dimension), you go to a different universe.Then, following what's been happening each time you move up a dimension number, you can take everything from the previous one and condense it to a point on the axis of the new dimension. It's not really just a point though. Think of 3D space, with the x, y and z axes. You could take an x/y plane and move it along the z axis, and it would only touch it at one point. It's like that, but several dimensions higher. So take every single possible universe, each one containing all the possibilities that branch out from all the moments in time, and then each moment holding its own version of 3D space. All of that is like a plane, intersecting the 7th dimension. So how do you have _another_ one of those? That's where I got stuck. The movie on YouTube got stuck at 10, but they skipped the 6th and then pretended the 8th and 9th were for teleporting between each other for no reason.So to summarize:0 nothing - a point1 depth - a line2 width - a plane3 height - normal space4 moments - the world moving through time5 possibilities - different outcomes, branches in time6 infinities - different possible universes with different beginnings as well as outcomes/endings7 all the infinities, containing all their different outcomes and branches, all the moments in these branches, and all the 3D space we would perceive is included in just _one_ position along this axis.So this doesn't end up like string theory (http://xkcd.com/171/), there is an application to making up stuff. That's always good. Here we go: Everything (as we see it) is "moving," or according to this, extended, along the 4th dimension. We can move at will (pretty much) through the 3rd dimension, so what if we could move through the 4th in other ways, or move along the 5th without actually causing the event that branches out? Then if follows that you could switch between universes as well.
6-12th dimensions are called Grassmann dimensions. These are extremely compacted and are undetectable. Bosons/Fermions can simultaniously pass through all of these dimensions at the same time. So even though you see 3D right now, there can be an 8D you in a different universe.
Also, your definition of dimensions is kind of skewed, since you're including abstract dimensions, not space.1. No string theory allowed here. Again, see xkcd: http://xkcd.com/171/
2. I am talking about space. Move along an axis and go to a different moment in time, possible outcome or universe.String Theory is okay. If you should be worried about anything, it's Quantum Mechanics.
Quantum Mechanics implies things. How many times do I have to ask you to read the xkcd I posted?
Rusky, if that xkcd that you posted is how you feel about the string theory. You better be atheist because otherwise it's stupid.
Also, grassmann dimensions are not part of string theory. They're on the border of Quantum Mechanics and string theory.Stop being so confrontational, RawrSpoon. Play nicely.
erm pleh. why does that feeling about string theory make me atheist? I'm not.
and grassmann dimensions make no sense. they're the things that don't match the definition of a dimension.1 dimension: a line
2 dimensions: a line with lines perpendicular to the original line3 dimensions: a plane with lines perpendicular to the plane4 dimensions: an object with lines perpendicular to the objectetc.It just adds perpendicular lines. How does that make no sense at all?Also, if your definition of dimensions is right, then theoretically, we should be able to access those dimensions. My next proposed question is why the hell can we not see the outcome of everything? Why must we calculate it? Wouldn't early scientists from the 50's have figured that out and tried to enter the 5th dimension to find outcomes?And if you say the string theory is meaningless, then you must be based on absolute proof, no faith. Therefore the belief in god, which is no proof, all faith, is contradicting to the denial of the string theory due to scientific reasons.I asked nicely.
The fundamental of the scientific method is that a theory stands until it is disproven by observation and that theory must be axiomatically defined, that is, it must be asserted using existing theories.Ok then, since we cannot actually investigate dimensions higher than the fourth, and even in the fourth dimension we are limited to moving in one direction, String Theory (in all its many shapes) cannot be disproven. Equally, there is no data to actually support String Theory. It is, as the name suggests, a theory and not the "String Law." Hence, higher dimensions as described by String Theory cannot be proven to exist or not exist. Furthermore, the dimensions that String Theory describes might not be physically real, they are mathematical concepts that allow us to express the theory.Ignoring the fact that the maths necessary for String Theory was not developed until at least the 1970s and that M-Theory did not exist before 1995 at the earliest, scientists have not "tried to enter the fifth dimension" because it is not a physical place itself. It, the fifth dimension, merely represents a multitude of alternate timelines. One cannot simply travel "to the fifth dimension" because we are constantly in all 10 (or 11 depending on what you believe) dimensions.As for whether String Theory is meaningless, it all depends on what you define as "meaningless." If I want to work all my life as a plumber, String Theory is indeed meaningless. I will never encounter any situations in which the mathematics of String Theory are relevant, only mathematics that works on a higher level (the pressure in a hydrodynamic system, for example) will be of any use. Meaningless does not mean true or false, it does not mean right or wrong and it most certainly does not mean proven or disproven.Thus, the entirety of your poorly worded argument is utterly meaningless. It has no relevance. It is worthless. Furthermore, the argument itself is fundamentally flawed:Let us assume that I claim String Theory is false using evidence (proof). According to your, wrong, argument, the fact that I have used data to disprove a scientific theory means that I cannot believe in a deity of any sort. In terms of formal logic, the use of data and the believe in a deity are mutually exclusive - they cannot occur at the same time.This is totally false. One can not only believe or doubt science in its many forms, but one can also believe of doubt in a deity. Creationists believe that the universe was created by an omnipotent being and all the physical laws and principles have occured due to the laws that the being created at the start of the universe. This is entirely plausible! Say I create a computer program that simulated life - everything in the game follows laws yet the entire system has been created by me - a higher being. Thus, science and religion are not mutually exclusive, they can exist at the same time.Now then RawrSpoon, argue back properly using accurate philosophy or be quiet.Theory has a different definition in science… but whatever.
The part of grassman dimensions that makes no sense is the stuff about some of them being small and unnoticeable and whatnot. If we didn't have any limbs to move around in the 3 dimensions we can, we wouldn't be able to. Do we have muscles that allow us to pull along the 4th or 5th dimensions? No. We'd need some outer force to help us along, so scientists wouldn't just magically 'enter the 5th dimension' in the 50s. Sheesh.Then, all I'm saying about the string theory/any other theory stuff is that mind actually makes logical sense. I still have no idea why some dimensions would be different than others and be unnoticeable or whatever.