Who believes in a Fourth Dimension, or even more?

Question

Well, personally, I do believe we have more dimensions than possible. Our feeble human minds can't imagine some things and this is most definitely one of them.. Just wondering what other people thought.

Answer 1

I've heard that, according to the theories of Albert Einstien, there is a curvature overall in the space-time fabric, and if that curvature is great enough then it might be possible that all of the physical universe with the four dimensions that we are aware of being located as the "skin" of that sphere, and so it seems logical to me that there are other dimensions undetectable to us which are within or outside of that sphere. Of course we don't know that curved space-time forms a simple sphere or if it is some more fantastic shape. Personall I believe in the existence of God and other "spirit" creatures as well, and it is just pure speculation but I view these as beings which occupy other diminsions besides our own.

Answer 2

well it is 9:13 PM right now as I sit here in Panera Bread Company typing away on my computer. 4 hours ago, it was 5:13 PM, and I was at my office, working. So yes, I do believe that the fourth dimension (time) exists.

But I tend to agree with Doctor Y here. By what standard are you measuring human minds? and what is your proper definition of a dimension? A spatial dimension? are you suggesting that maybe one day humans will go up, down, left, right, forward, back, and xxfhgtk? Or maybe you mean a separate magical realm, where there are dragons and fairies and you can only get to it by walking through a magical cupboard? Or maybe you are refering to heaven, which is of course so evident to the believers that they can't fathom the notion of doubting its existence? That might explain your grim perspective on human nature, given that you dismiss human minds (which, presumably, includes your mind as well), probably in favor of an infinite, omnipotent, omnibenevolent God.

It comes down to epistemology, in this case, faith. The existence of dimensions beyond the four known ones are only not mathematically impossible, which does not equate reality. That has long been the major problem with theories such as String Theory and M theory; it's all theoretical mathematic constructs, no physical evidence has ever surfaced demonstrating the existence of strings or higher physical dimensions.

If you are refering to, say, another realm, like a spiritual realm well, that's between you and your God. I personally do not believe that the existence of a divine or supernatural realm is logically possible.

Answer 3

Because someone can't imagine something it must be? Come on... that's spurious reasoning at its worst.

And by what standard do you consider human minds feeble? Do you have access to some kind of superior mind somewhere? From where I'm sitting, human minds tend to kick most other minds around, even if they are frequently fallible and easily influenced. For all we know, that's an intrinsic property of minds (a mind not open to influence at all couldn't interact with its surroundings!).

If you want to get involved in a serious discussion of dimensionality, then perhaps we'd better define our terms first. A dimension is a way of measuring things, and in which things might change, which cannot be reduced to other dimensions. The three spatial dimensions might be thought of as a coordinate system by which you can define the location of any object in space, and through which objects can move.

In that sense, time may be a sort of dimension, in that for a specific spatial coordinate, there may be different things there depending on point in time you choose. Time is NOT, however, like space in the sense that you can easily move back and forth, but it is a way of measuring things nonetheless. Because of this, it might be argued that time is not a dimension; that there is only NOW and discussion of other time-coordinates has only a referential and not a physical meaning (like talking about what people remember). Some theories do suggest that antimatter travels backward in time and that perhaps even stranger things go on, but that involves a MUCH more protracted discussion!

There are many OTHER things that could easily be thought of as dimensions too. Mass, for example, is a property that is not dependant on location or time. And it can be changed, though the process is energetically quite expensive. Electric charge could be considered a dimension as well, even though its expression seems to be heavily quantized at the low end. Still, this latter qualification may not exclude it, as there is some research which suggests that space is not completely continuous either and may be quantized at a small enough scale.

Some theories sometimes forwarded by physicists postulate dozens of dimensions, the exact number varying depending on exactly which theory you favor. Even proponents of such ideas are hard pressed to name them all (most don't even try). And that's even when obscure quantum-mechanical qualities such as 'flavor' and 'spin' are counted in. Still, you never know...

For a longer discussion on the topic of assigning actual physical concepts to each of many dimensions, I recommend the book "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku. It's not too heavy, so it should be accessible to just about anybody.

Answer 4

There are 3 spatial dimensions and the fourth dimension is time.

Some scientists believe that there are many more and have tried to prove this mathematically.

Nothing is impossible. I agree with you that our human minds are feeble and cannot possibly comprehend the full wonders of the universe or multiverse.

Answer 5

I THINK EVERY DIMENSION IS WITHIN ONE UNIVERSAL DIMENSION.