A on a TV program on Wormholes, they said there could be 122 or more dimensions, what would they be like?

Question

I am aware of the usual three dimensions for space and a fourth demension for time, however on watching a program on wormholes, the announcer mentioned there could be 122 or more demensions. I wonder what would the parameters of these demensions be?. Can they be explained in our 4D universe???What bounds would they have? or is it all another "epicycle" like explanation.
Thanks

Answer 1

Please elaborate your question. What do you mean by "explained in our 4D universe"? What do you mean by bounds in this context and what is an epicycle like explanation?

A TV program is not a good source for reading about possible extra dimensions. Wikipedia however is.

Answer 2

First of all, time really isn't the fourth dimension. Dimensions are a set of vectors that produce (have in their span) vectors that are orthogonal. In 3-D we can have the x,y, and z axis. Since there are three (and only three) orthogonal vectors, the dimension is 3.

Now, yes, time is orthogonal to x, y, and z. But the problem is that we can't move around in time. We move forward, and that's it. Now we can go faster and thus (by the theory of relativity) move through time more quickly, but this can only be done in one direction. This isn't the type of dimension that they are talking about.

How do you think of the 4th dimension? I think the best way is to think about a multistory building. If you are on floor 3, you don't know what is happening on the other floors, because you can only be on floor 3. Now take that building and crush it so that there are infinitely many floors that are infinitely small. If someone was outside of the building, they could see what was happening, but since we are forced to be in it, we only know what happens on our floor.

likewise, you could view the 5th dimension as the building next to you (on the left) (that has that same structure).

The 6th dimension could be the building in front of you.

We are a 3d people, and can only see what on our floor.
4d people could see the whole building, but only that building.
5d people could see a row of buildings.
6d people could see all the rows and columns of buildings.

Now you could imagine that all those rows and columns of buildings make a floor in a building . . .
This process can be continued for as long as you want. It's hard to understand because we are 3d people and thus can only see what our floor looks like. So we can only "guess" what anything more than our floor looks like.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

that it may be 123