what is 11 dimensional space?

Question

why are we not able to visualize 11 dimensional space described in string theory? please give me answers in entirely layman's terms, because i am not Mensa, i am Densa!!! LOL

Answer 1

Think of it this way.

Two dimensional is (x,y)
Three dimensional is (x,y,z)
Four dimensional is (w,x,y,z)

11 dimensional space would continue along those lines (a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k)

Each letter represents a dimension.

I'll give you an illustration using words.

Let's say two dimensions is a piece of paper or a plane. In our case, we'll use the paper.

When you go from 2 dim to 3 dim, you have a piece of paper is 2d, then you add pages you get 3d. So you could what you had on a page and make photocopies and that would keep two of the three dimensions the same. Or you could alter what's on each page.

From 3 dimensions to 4 dimensions, now you have a book and can make copies of that, right? Or you could have a library with all sorts of different books.

From 4 dimensions to five, you have a library of books and can have another one just like it next door, or you can have a different library.

From five dimensions to six, you now have a bunch of libraries in a town, and could have another town just like it, or the next town could be completely different.

From six dimensions to seven, you now have a bunch of towns in a state with libraries with books with pages. You could have another state just like it, or they could be different.

And you can continue from there.

Does that make sense?

11 dimensional space then is a set of 11 variables, any of which could be the same, or different)

(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11)
(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,10)
(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,7,7,7,7) and so forth.

You can alter any one variable within the set, or all of them. Each is unique. But you can have repeating pattern (just like you can have copies of books), but they might be in different towns or libraries, etc.

Hope that helps!


P.S. FYI, I hated string theory! lol

Answer 2

We observe four dimensions everyday, three spatial and time.
Time is called a dimension because it makes mathematical sense to do so.
But...theories such as string theory predict that the space we live in has in fact many more dimensions (in different theories appear frequently 10, 11 or 26), but that the universe measured along these additional dimensions is subatomic in size. As a result, we perceive only the three spatial dimensions that have macroscopic size.

This is not so strange as it sounds, which I'll show with an example. Imagine you are in an airplane, flying over sea. Seen from a height, the sea looks flat, two-dimensional. But when the plane looses height we start to perceive the waves, that move in a third direction we could not see before.

The universe could be the same. Four macroscopic dimensions and a few more, hidden ones. We can only perceive them for instance, by the small effects their existence might have on subatomic particles.

Answer 3

Because WE only live in 3 + time of those 11 dimensions.

therefore we can sort of visualize 4 dimensions, easily visualize 3 dimensions, 2 dimensions, and 1 dimension.

-T

Answer 4

It takes practice. Time is not actually a dimension. Its a subjective way of describing the movement of the other dimensions which form the basic particles within our three spatial dimensions. I visualize it all the time. And it gives me tremendous headaches.

Answer 5

as a creative writer, i find the theory of multiple dimensions to be fascinating, i go along the lines that the universe is a gigantic bubble, the smaller bubbles are the time-space continuums (dimensions) some are parallel while others are not, even saying that some bubles might even collide wuth each other ... another dimension colliding with earth's ... imagine what might occur.