Today we talk of one of the most exciting things that is currently going on at CERN – which let’s face it is one of the most exciting places in the world right now. Once upon a time we accepted the world as having three dimensions of space and one as time and that suited us just fine – because we would see them and what makes more sense than seeing things?
Well the whole thing kicked off when Einstein worked out that gravity was nothing more than a wave in space and time. Fine. Then when a German mathematician turned his gaze to the electromagnetic force he realised that in order to adequately explain the force he needed a fourth dimension – and as if by magic out of these four dimensional equations popped the known forces of electromagnetism. This is a real whistle stop tour of breaking three dimensions – in fact we now think there are around 10 dimensions.
What I am talking about is the experiment at CERN which fills me with such great excitement. What they are doing is showing that these things actually exist. I am a theorist, but sometimes things being experimentally verified do really help. What these clever people are doing is accelerating particles really really fast (at the speed of light) and then they are colliding them into each other. When this collision occurs, what they hope to show is that there is less energy after the collision than there was before the collision – a violation of the fundamental laws of Physics? Well no fear not! This energy is being absorbed into the extra dimensions beyond the human eye.
There is a lot more to it than this; the press release can be found here. I do hope this experiment does what it sets out to do an that we get the proof we are looking for. It will be a great leap in the perception of the world if we can begin to accept the hidden dimensions, which will only lead us onto greater and greater understanding of the universe. Yes science.
Rationalising The Universe 
I like this 😀 Well partly because it reminds of the movie Interstellar, cried like crazy, and partly coz of the possibility of perceiving all those extra dimensions! And then you had to go and do this, “Extra dimensions would not necessarily consist of alternate worlds, as depicted in science fiction”.. Yea, broke my heart, Joseph!.. Okay kidding 😀 We’ll know when we’ll know I guess, till then game face 8)
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My greatest fear is that we will know of their existence but the limitations of our three dimensional space will stop us experiencing. We shall have to wait and see! I don’t think there is anything wrong with dreaming – if I learnt anything about the quantum world expect to be surprised
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That is a point, disappointing as it may be, knowing of their existence but then that’s it… end of the line. May not be able to really experience it, what a terrible plight. On a positive note though, knowledge attained, however small or incomplete, is one step closer, opposed to ignorance.
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Exactly, and we owe it to future generations. Remember the universe will die and the only way to escape it is to go to another one!
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Well, the reason that we can never physically feel those extra six or seven dimensions is because they are compacted to sizes smaller than planck’s length, ideally those six dimensions are curled up in a way to create kahler metric manifolds, and these spaces are attached as a thickness to the entire 4 dimensional space-time. i.e each point in space can be imagined to be fundamentally composed of those manifolds. like the layer of a cake, where the lowest layer is the width of those extra dimensions. The fact could be that even when you wave your hand, you are actually passing through them, not you exactly but your fundamental self i.e essentially your elementary particles( quarks and actually strings); but our brain and body is designed to live and make sense of the macro universe, as other wise it would have been chaos to witness.
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Fascinating isn’t it! I love to spend time thinking about all of the crazy things that are happening right now, on a sub-atomic level in all things, including our bodies. It is an amazing thing the universe.Thinking about it sometimes fills me with awe an inspiration. On the odd occasion I do get a headache!
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Same here man! Everything about universal existence is absolutely fascinating, the deeper you delve into the possibilities of strings and dimensions the more crazier it gets. Dark energy and matter are still complete mysteries to our knowledge. Cheers to physics and cosmology 👍
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