18 replies to this topic

[1radtech]

this might not be the right place to start this thread...my apologies before hand...

is there any way to discover if different dimensions exist? if so how is it done? and has anyone ever experienced anything with dimensions in space and time or whatever they are....

[Stormcrow]

I've heard a lot of stories about people experiencing "time skips", or visiting a place in time that no longer exists. My idea is that if you can create a pattern in which these skips occur in a singular area--which would take lots, and lots and lotslotslots of time and research--you could probably accurately guess at what point another skip COULD occur. After that it would just be finding a wiling volunteer, given some people who experience these skips don't always necessarily come back in their right mind...

[tinieblas]

well some branches of science state that while time travel is not possible, dimensional travel theoretically is.....I recommend Timeline my Michael Crichton for an idea.......I believe one day it will be possible if we can generate the right kind of power and have powerful enough computers.....

[sepulchrave]

1radtech, on 07 November 2009 - 10:31 PM, said:

is there any way to discover if different dimensions exist? if so how is it done? and has anyone ever experienced anything with dimensions in space and time or whatever they are....

If you are asking a technical question, a different dimension would be identified through an asymmetry.

An easy way of detecting a different dimension would be to observe `leakage' or `seepage' of conserved quantities. Obviously if a previously sealed, empty room suddenly had some stuff in it this would be a good indication that there was another dimension(s).

More fundamentally, the presence of accessible extra dimensions affects the propagation of forces and fields. For example, in 3 dimensions the electric field from a point charge decreases as ~r^-2 where r is the distance from the point charge. If you have a good approximation of a point charge (crudely you could use a helium balloon charged up with static and tethered by a string) and you have devices set up around it to measure the electric field and you notice that the field decreases as, say, ~r^-n, then that is a good indication that there are (n+1) dimensions in that vicinity. The same rule works for gravity, and similar rules can be derived for magnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, sound waves, and the like.

If the number of local dimensions changes over time identifying extra dimensions is obviously quite challenging. This is one (of the many) reasons why scientists discount the possibility of strong interaction between additional dimensions.

[Hugh]

1radtech, on 07 November 2009 - 10:31 PM, said:

has anyone ever experienced anything with dimensions in space and time or whatever they are....

When people experience Visual Reorientation Illusions (VRIs), they see things from other directions...

Personally, I think that this is possible due to those other directions of space actually existing within higher dimensions.

[tinieblas]

wow thanks for your, as usual, informative post Sepulgrave!  I'm very interested in what's developing in  this field of research myself.....I think the LHC will make giant leaps in this area more likely once it fires up.

[Black Red Devil]

1radtech, on 07 November 2009 - 10:31 PM, said:

this might not be the right place to start this thread...my apologies before hand...

is there any way to discover if different dimensions exist? if so how is it done? and has anyone ever experienced anything with dimensions in space and time or whatever they are....

Apparently M-theory speaks about 11 dimensions.

[Mattshark]

BlackRedLittleDevil, on 08 November 2009 - 10:17 AM, said:

Apparently M-theory speaks about 11 dimensions.

Yep it does. They are not dimensions you can travel between though, not unless anyone things they can have no depth.

[Hugh]

It's fascinating to think about the possibility of higher dimensions.

String theory postulates that there are "curled up dimensions" too small to see.

Think about if every particle had these higher dimensions like this:



If every surface that we look at has this boundary on an extremely small scale, and our body (and our eyes) have this boundary on an extremely small scale too, what would be our experience of this?

How would it affect our viewpoint of things?

Think about two of these surfaces facing each other.

There would be many different angles of viewpoint between the two surfaces in those higher dimensions.

One could see from this curled up angle to that one, or from this one over here to that one over there.

On a macroscopic level, it all looks "the same" from any of the angles because one is looking at the overall surface of countless billions and billions of tiny particles, but these "extra viewing angles" would come into play, because of the higher dimensional space.

[ShaunZero]

Mattshark, on 08 November 2009 - 12:45 PM, said:

Yep it does. They are not dimensions you can travel between though, not unless anyone things they can have no depth.

That was something I've always wondered about spacial dimensions. How can something possibly have only 2 dimensions? That would mean that is has absolutely no height. No height = does not exist. Sure you could say we can't comprehend it, but if you say that, how can you posit it as possible if you can't comprehend the concept.

[sepulchrave]

ShaunZero, on 08 November 2009 - 09:34 PM, said:

That was something I've always wondered about spacial dimensions. How can something possibly have only 2 dimensions? That would mean that is has absolutely no height. No height = does not exist. Sure you could say we can't comprehend it, but if you say that, how can you posit it as possible if you can't comprehend the concept.

Well... if there 2D objects lying around we could (presumably) detect them.

We would not be able to physically interact with them, but assuming the 2D things were made of the 2D equivalents to our 3D atoms then, for example, our electromagnetic fields could `leak' into the 2D world (well, the component of the field parallel to the 2D world could), and vice versa the EM fields of the 2D world could couple to 3D atoms in the vicinity. The net effect would be a small discontinuity in or observable 3D fields that would match the plane of the 2D world.

If you argue that the 2D objects are made of 2D atoms which are completely different than our 3D atoms then the above argument wouldn't work, of course.

But in general there is nothing wrong with 2D (or 1D, for that matter) objects - they are just pretty boring. There are several devices which approximate 2D things (such as quantum wells).

You could just as well argue that a 4D creature (length x width x height x 'wibble') would be unable to comprehend a 3D object. I mean 3D means wibble=0, so how can it exist? Of course us 3D creatures don't know what 'wibble' is so we have no problem existing happily.

[Black Red Devil]

Mattshark, on 08 November 2009 - 12:45 PM, said:

Yep it does. They are not dimensions you can travel between though, not unless anyone things they can have no depth.

Never said you could travel within them. According to M-Theory we live in all of them at the same time but we only can perceive our 3D + Time dimensions while the others are at the quantum level.

[Black Red Devil]

sepulchrave, on 08 November 2009 - 10:08 PM, said:

Well... if there 2D objects lying around we could (presumably) detect them.

We would not be able to physically interact with them, but assuming the 2D things were made of the 2D equivalents to our 3D atoms then, for example, our electromagnetic fields could `leak' into the 2D world (well, the component of the field parallel to the 2D world could), and vice versa the EM fields of the 2D world could couple to 3D atoms in the vicinity. The net effect would be a small discontinuity in or observable 3D fields that would match the plane of the 2D world.

If you argue that the 2D objects are made of 2D atoms which are completely different than our 3D atoms then the above argument wouldn't work, of course.

But in general there is nothing wrong with 2D (or 1D, for that matter) objects - they are just pretty boring. There are several devices which approximate 2D things (such as quantum wells).

You could just as well argue that a 4D creature (length x width x height x 'wibble') would be unable to comprehend a 3D object. I mean 3D means wibble=0, so how can it exist? Of course us 3D creatures don't know what 'wibble' is so we have no problem existing happily.

Mate, I love your scientific approach in describing things but ever heard of Layman's Terms?

[Mattshark]

BlackRedLittleDevil, on 09 November 2009 - 10:14 PM, said:

Never said you could travel within them. According to M-Theory we live in all of them at the same time but we only can perceive our 3D + Time dimensions while the others are at the quantum level.

Yeah I know, a lot of people confusion dimension with parallel universe though and think that scientific work on dimensions is evidence of parallel universes.

[Hugh]

Think of two 2D (x,y) flat plane parallel universes, separated by a short distance in a third spatial dimension along the z axis.

Now think of two 3D (x,y,z) cube parallel universes, separated by a short distance in a fourth spatial dimension along the w axis.