Topic: Imagining the tenth dimension

[A Bit of Fruit]

http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php

Click on Imagining the tenth dimension on the left...after around the 6th or 7th dimensions i couldnt quite picture the dimensions they were describing, but its still very interesting and thought provoking.

[Mike]

Pretty cool.

Of course I just think of the 10th dimension being a space involving 10 variables :P

[micah]

Code: [Select]

Doc: Marty, you're not thinking fourth dimensionally!
Marty McFly: Yeah, I know, I got a real problem with that.
I watched it. pretty interesting. I saw a discovery channel (or NOVA or something) documentary once that tried to explain "String Theory" very similar.

But yeah, that link was pretty cool.
I followed it most of the way through, in the end (spoiler), its concludes that "All possibilities [in both this universe and others] are contained within the 10th dimension".

Personally, I think this ties into TGM's thread about "Why are we here." I say, if there is a 10th dimension, that it is God. Or is at least controlled by Him.  thoughts?

[Mike]

Yeah don't bring God into a physics / math discussion :P

[A Bit of Fruit]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

So so interesting; i watched it all tonight. It tries to explain string theory and the whole conflict between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics (and how string theory can be used to resolve it). It also explains the 10 or 11 dimensions (depending on which theory to which you subscribe) alot better than this thing did.

I really hope evidence of string theory is found in the physical world, although i didnt like their explanation of how/why the big bang couldve happened using string theory.

[micah]

Yeah don't bring God into a physics / math discussion :P

oh, i know what you mean. I've never understood the divide though.
the "Church" from its earliest history until even today seems to have a problem with science.  But by the same token, science is hell bent on trying to prove that God is a myth devised by simpletons who are to stupid for their own good.  I don't understand why there can't be both. 

The main difference, I suppose, is that the sciences are generally based on absolutes.  1 == 1 and there is no bending that.  Anything can be explained (or will eventually be explained) if you just boil it down to its absolute value.  On the other end, religions tend to gloss over the technical details and assume that some things are just better left unexplained.

But I think the two are intertwined and prove each other.  With all the variables harmonizing the countless complex systems that make up our known universe, I don't see how those could have all come to be without some sort of control.  Even the physical laws that contain those systems (Classical and Quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnitism, etc..) All had to come from somewhere. 

I personally believe strongly in both science and in my faith in a judeo-christian God.  Science helps us understand God.

[Perspective]

Cool video. String theory is pretty interesting, but just for the sake of argument, Could String Theory be a disaster for physics?

[micah]

good link perspective

If string theory made a prediction that didn't accord with physical reality, stringsters could say it's correct in one of these other universes. As a result, writes Prof. Smolin, "string theory cannot be disproved." By the usual standards, that would rule it out as science.
...
Virtually every young mathematically inclined particle theorist must sign on to the string agenda to get an academic job. By his count, of 22 recently tenured professors in particle theory at the six top U.S. departments, 20 are string theorists.
...
That string theory abandoned testable predictions may be its ultimate betrayal of science.

faith in something unprovable. hmm.  sounds familiar.