Posted on 09/02/2005 11:33:22 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
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This does certainly sound extremely speculative, interesting though, guess Hollywood films with creatures from the 6th dimension still have legs!
Einstein found this talk about extra dimensions vaguely annoying. He actually didn't approve of any actual solutions to his equations, although there appear to be an infinite number of them that would not be inconsistent with the universe as it appears to be and a lot more that aren't consistent with physics at all.
Teacher? ...Teacher? I have a question: How, exactly, can a dimension be "small"? We have three, visible, physical dimensions of which we are all aware. Do you describe those dimensions as "large" or "small"? It seems to me that the terms hold no meaning when talking about dimensions, or rather, the terms are redundant and self-referential. The terms "large" and "small" imply the existence of a dimension in which those relative measurements apply. Don't they?
Well, in New Orleans I am truly witnessing an alternate universe.
"This does certainly sound extremely speculative, interesting though, guess Hollywood films with creatures from the 6th dimension still have legs!"
Buckaroo-Banzai - accross the 8th Dimension!
Thanks for the ping!
It's like an extreme case of atmospheric refraction, the mirage, where everything in that direction is compressed into near flatness as seen by the eye. Everything is still in there, but you can cover it all with your thumbnail.
But those legs are only a few nanometers long!
Seriously, I wonder how this is related to Brane Theory. Could dark matter simply be graviational attraction for masses that exist in parallel universes? I have read that gravity may act in these extra dimensions and can be detected between adjacent universes.
For a hard science, there's a whole lotta speculatin' goin' on.
As long as it's consistent with the evidence, it's tolerable -- barely. The trick will be to find a way to test it.
It's just interesting to think about all the posters who argue that science is not allowed to speculate, or that science lacks the imagination to deal with extra dimensions, and so forth.
Well, in my observation, those posters exist only in fantasy.
...or that science lacks the imagination to deal with extra dimensions...
Well, those exist in one sense, but you've misconstrued them in any event.
...and so forth.
That's rather vague.
Scientists don't tell them how to decorate their double-wides, and they shouldn't tell scientists how to think.
Extra dimensions would give the brane-layers of space-time at least one degree of freedom to fold in. So yes, it could apply. Not that I would know a minkowski laminate from an affine vector-space.
PS. The dimensions that science cannot deal with are those which follow no consistent, rational patterns and which exhibit no properties of materiality. In other words, dimensions which are indistinguishable from non-existence.
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