Posted on 05/05/2016 6:53:04 PM PDT by MtnClimber
The question of why space is three-dimensional (3D) and not some other number of dimensions has puzzled philosophers and scientists since ancient Greece. Space-time overall is four-dimensional, or (3 + 1)-dimensional, where time is the fourth dimension. It's well-known that the time dimension is related to the second law of thermodynamics: time has one direction (forward) because entropy (a measure of disorder) never decreases in a closed system such as the universe.
In a new paper published in EPL, researchers have proposed that the second law of thermodynamics may also explain why space is 3D.
"A number of researchers in the fields of science and philosophy have addressed the problem of the (3+1)-dimensional nature of space-time by justifying the suitable choice of its dimensionality in order to maintain life, stability and complexity," coauthor Julian Gonzalez-Ayala, at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico and the University of Salamanca in Spain, told Phys.org.
..... The scientists propose that space is 3D because of a thermodynamic quantity called the Helmholtz free energy density. In a universe filled with radiation, this density can be thought of as a kind of pressure on all of space, which depends on the universe's temperature and its number of spatial dimensions.
Here the researchers showed that, as the universe began cooling from the moment after the big bang, the Helmholtz density reached its first maximum value at a very high temperature corresponding to when the universe was just a fraction of a second old, and when the number of spatial dimensions was approximately three. The key idea is that 3D space was "frozen in" at this point when the Helmholtz density reached its first maximum value, prohibiting 3D space from transitioning to other dimensions.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
I don’t think you are a bad person. Probably just a little overexposure to some Dark Matter.
If you don’t glow in the dark like the rest of us I am sure that is the cause.
Time is a good thing... It keeps everything from happening at once.
Mark
The TARDIS missed that dimension searching for Danny.
“There are 5 dimensions. (I’m serious)”
Here’s the Fifth Dimension:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZcA3kiaQb0
Time is a bubble in a bubble universe. It is happening instantaneously. It is our weakened perception that makes it seem linear.
It’s simple really. It’s because a body in motion tends to stay in motion until acted upon by an external force.
Google "fractals."
How long, exactly, is a shoreline?
On a physical plane, 4 dimensions are enough (time in particular as the 4th one).
It must have been hard to get from place to place, what with all the jumping you would have had to do.
Be back bump
Twice as long as a byline.
A longshoreman told me it was so.
I believe him!
Please defend and explain. Somebody else said 20, which is 4 times as awesome, so you're sorta handicapped right out of the gate.
I appreciate your words. I know I don’t glow in the dark. Maybe I am good person after all. You’ve given me real hope. I’m going to go out and beat an elderly person.
Those are 3 atoms that make up 1 molecule, but...
“If the number of dimensions was approximately three, might there have at one time been pi dimensions? “
Look up Peano curves. Then check back in a couple days.
This is using a tape measure to measure itself. It is only 'it is', and even that is a lie.
Odd that a scientific journal would still be stuck in just four dimensions when matrix string theory says there are 11
Or might mean you get “there” faster.
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