Imagining Other Dimensions »
Posted By Radiofreeeuropa 10 months, 2 weeks ago in Science & TechnologyFor most of us, or perhaps all of us, it's impossible to imagine a world
consisting of more than three spatial dimensions. Are we correct when we intuit that such a world couldn't exist? Or is it that our brains are simply incapable of imagining additional dimensions; dimensions that may turn out to be as real as other things we can't detect? String theorists are betting that extra dimensions do indeed exist; in fact, the equations that describe superstring theory require a universe with no fewer than 10 dimensions. But even physicists who spend all day thinking about extra spatial dimensions have a hard time describing what they might look like or how we apparently feeble-minded humans might approach an understanding of them. That's always been the case, and perhaps always will be.
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Radiofreeeuropa
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
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Here is a little follow up to the ANARCHS OF THE NEW PARADIGM article. A great aid to visualizing multidimensional space-time.
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String theory requires the existence of multiple dimensions. We can use mathematics to calculate their existence. But can our human brains "sense" or comprehend them? -
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
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I suppose what my interest here is to take all the pictures that give us glimpses into the truth of "the universe" - Art, Music, Philosophy, & theoretical physics- examine each of these respective pictures on their own merits - then as a collage.
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I believe in a sense that the collage if viewed in it's entirety will be another "picture" entirely. Like Andrej Olejnik's-Albert Hall photomosaic-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andrej_olejnik-a... -
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GehlLady10 months, 2 weeks ago
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I'm very comfortable working in at least 4, when I worked building golf courses. I don't think or see in planes, I see and work in flow and shapes. Flys' comment on your other thread made me think of how I could get a small understanding by my work, thanks to both of you!
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truthiness10 months, 2 weeks ago
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string theory appears to me to be very much like a mythology which finds 'facts' to make the theory work.. the math didn't work in three dimensions, so they invented enough dimensions to make it work. then they found someone else who did the same thing and called that corroboration.
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it requires an initial acceptance that the fundamental math is fact and not just an interesting formula that holds no bearing on reality.. since the conclusions are untestable, this is a matter of faith.
in Judaism there is a sect of mystics that practice Gemytra (sp?) a type of numerology which claims that every Hebrew letter has a correlating number and the entire Torah is actually a code for a mathematical equation that explains the universe. the mathematical equations they come up with work and prove their point, if you accept the premise that God gave Moses a code book in Hebrew. ( and ignore the fact that Moses wouldn't have known Hebrew but Aramaic)
in the article, the sphere is attempting to reveal to the line the fact that it is not perceiving a very real protrusion of matter along the z axis. the fact that matter can exist in this reality is what makes it a dimension. no? so what is contained in these other six dimensions? if there is no matter, no protrusion from the other 3 dimensions, what makes them dimensions?
I would also like to take this opportunity to contend ( in an act of extreme hubris) that time is not a dimension. time is the way we monitor the movement of 3-d objects through 3-d space in relationship to other 3-d objects in 3-d space. (whether its how long it takes me to run a mile across the earth's surface or how long it takes the earth to circumnavigate the sun).-
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
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All interesting thoughts. It looks to me as if string theory is very much "under construction". We have glimpsed a bit of it, not enough to even predict where it is leading with any honesty.
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It seems that mathematically at least these dimensions do exist. That probability suggests even more. Since our our limited senses do not readily perceive them, is no reason to "disbelieve" them. (Is mathematical probability faith?) Dog's can readily hear sound waves well above 20 kilohertz, humans don't. No reason to disbelieve they exist because we don't actually have the "equipment" to hear them. Yet it is only "faith" in mathematical calculations and the use of them in measuring devices that allow us to "know" they are there. The same could be so in string theory....
Now time...hmm....your messing with relativity there. My experience of time is that at least consciously it seems to be a straight line....yet much more learned physicists and mathematicians have claimed otherwise...I think in terms of graphics, it needs to be seen as dimensional...I suppose to some degree that's semantics though. It is. and It is what it is.
I haven' t seen any convincing evidence of "bible codes"- at least not in the sense that modern authors have suggested. . Made for a few nice books and a few unscientific specials on the history channel though. One reason it is easy to come up with such possibilities is the nature of ancient Hebrew. In which of course there are no vowels, and words or combinations of letters can have many meanings! Though as you mentioned those studying the Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism do have some serious numerology
to explore. But also as you mentioned, one must assume that the original Aramaic text would be translated in such a way as to make that all happen. I think the likelihood of attaching numbers and meanings were contemporary to each other a good bet. 18 became the meaning of life because the letters added up to 18, not vice versa.
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