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Can anyone tell me in lay mans terms after the first 4 possibly the fifth( I am not quite sure about the fifth )what the other dimensions are suppose to be or called. I have been very interested in learning about these theories. It might be a subject that is not easily defined I really don't know. Lately I have been reading books on Tesla and a little on Einstien  two very interesting individuals. If anybody has any information on the dimensional theory please let me know or point me to place that　Ｉ　ｍｉｇｈï½"　ｆｉｎï½,,　ｏｕï½"　ｍｏï½'ï½...　ａï½,ｏｕï½"　ｉï½"． 　Ｔｈａｎｋï½"

This may help out some:

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

Wish I could help, but to really learn about it, you'd have to know some pretty complex mathematics. It's many many levels above where I got off the mathwagon!

Quote from: "McQ"Wish I could help, but to really learn about it, you'd have to know some pretty complex mathematics. It's many many levels above where I got off the mathwagon!

Even after a three year physics degree, I still haven't got anywhere close to this stuff.

One thing i can tell you though, the dimensions dont have names like depth, width, height like our normal spatial dimensions, they really are just too weird to even contemplate in any meaningful way. Imagine trying to put 12 lines through a point, so that every line is at right angles with every other line, it is bassically impossible for us to visualise.

I wouldn't worry though, most hyper dimensional theories come about as the result of looking at M-theory or other string theory like contructs, and no serious physicist pays much heed to theories that provide no testable hypothosis. In short, these theories are unlikley to provide anyone with any answers.

Quote from: "Squid"This may help out some:

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

Thank you for helping me out with this . I am definitely going to take a look at the site. The first page has me already hooked

Quote from: "janafeir"

Quote from: "Squid"This may help out some:

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

Thank you for helping me out with this . I am definitely going to take a look at the site. The first page has me already hooked

I think the elegant universe series is also available for instant play through Netflix.

Quote from: "SSY"

Quote from: "McQ"Wish I could help, but to really learn about it, you'd have to know some pretty complex mathematics. It's many many levels above where I got off the mathwagon!

Even after a three year physics degree, I still haven't got anywhere close to this stuff.

One thing i can tell you though, the dimensions dont have names like depth, width, height like our normal spatial dimensions, they really are just too weird to even contemplate in any meaningful way. Imagine trying to put 12 lines through a point, so that every line is at right angles with every other line, it is bassically impossible for us to visualise.

I wouldn't worry though, most hyper dimensional theories come about as the result of looking at M-theory or other string theory like contructs, and no serious physicist pays much heed to theories that provide no testable hypothosis. In short, these theories are unlikley to provide anyone with any answers.

 I find theories like this one very unique combination of creativity and math and it brings out the investigative side of me. Not only that, what was the motivation or the question that set Einstien off in the direction to come up with the equation? Some theories begin as idea some for the purpose of actually putting into practice or developing into reality a real tangible source.Example at one time the atom was just dream, than it was a theory. However it was always a reality to be later discovered by humans when we had developed to the point of understanding and putting it into application. It is the same with DNA and others. Hypothetically what do you think they were trying to find out with the dimensional theory?What do you think they were trying to achieve if  this 12d  theory could be apply in reality? E.g the atom = atomic power etc. I am interested in your opnions SSY and McQ  

Quote from: "laetusatheos"

Quote from: "janafeir"

Quote from: "Squid"This may help out some:

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

Thank you for helping me out with this . I am definitely going to take a look at the site. The first page has me already hooked

I think the elegant universe series is also available for instant play through Netflix.

 Thank you for your suggestion I definitely will check that one out to. I like having several sources to look at. That way I can cross verify them and even though they are the same concept some of it can be taught/explained in a different way as to reach a wide variety of people ( myself included )interested in the subject.

In the broadest sense possible, introduction of extra dimensions is a way of breaking symetries. Something that is symetrical in 2d, may not be symetrical in 3d, for example. Most Toes ( theory of eveything ) seek to explain the origins of fundamental particles, by having such a large dimensional construct ( sometimes called a spinsor ) you can project it ( ie, lopping off various dimensions ) in many different ways to obtain the groups of particles or fields you want to describe the universe with.You want to break these symetries becuase otherwise everything has a tendancy to " cancel out" and you are left with trivial solutions to problems which are obviously unphysical.

 Probably the biggest challenge in modern physics is finding a toe that adequetly explains all 4 fundamental forces (electromag,gravity,strong,weak), this would represent a furthering of understanding more significat than GR or QM in my oppinion.

As I said before though, calling things like SUGRA or M theory nascent would be generous. These theories are still so young and so undeveloped, you really can't learn anything from them yet, or prove their validity, they remain as intresting mathmatical constructs to all but the most zealous of theoretical physicist.

I have a line of books on my shelf that go into this, from my standard "Relativity for Dummies" to Hawking, Feynman, and Einstein himself. I still have no clue on this stuff! But I love to read about it. I'm particularly amazed that they even begin to think this stuff up in the first place. Honestly, I can barely grasp it because it just won't make sense without a deeper understanding of math than I have. I'm still working on long division.  

Quote from: "Squid"This may help out some:

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

I watched that series of programmes and was well impressed ... in another section they talk about the "hidden dimensions" and I found this section on fractals amazing.. it also hurt my head  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fractals/scale.html (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fractals/scale.html)

Not a math person at all, but when I read SSY's comment about putting 12 lines through a point and bending them to 90 degrees, the visual that created reminded me of this video. I don't think it's really realted to the kind of thing you're looking for, but it might be of slight interest and help your mind with visualizing representations of physically impossible math.

It's a demonstration of how to turn a sphere inside out (not the physically possible way you might think, but in a mathematic sense, not poking a hole in the sphere or bending or creasing anything).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9825291409 (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6626464599825291409)