Even though this is a 7 yo talk given before discovery of the God Particle, it's a great illustration of String Theory, which only adds up when you add 7 Dimensions to the 3 (or 4) we can perceive, if you include time, which is another dimension.


Physicist Brian Greene explains superstring theory, the idea that minuscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.


https://youtu.be/kF4ju6j6aLE

If only we could put up cute pet photos!!!

Can we, CZ, can we?

Only Susan I/S is allowed to post cute pet photos.

I will allow a limited amount of discussion of string theory because it is (mental) masturbation, and we have always allowed conversation on topics that the church frowns upon, such as sexuality and thought. But within reason! Please keep it PG-13ish.

I have spoken.

CZ (admin)

Then you are contributing to blindness!

;-)

I guess it's true what they say about CZ's hairy palms.

I prefer Silly String because it's fact, not just theory.

I've heard about string theory, not much of it good, in the sense that it is largely untestable. I knew it lived in a world of 10 dimensions, give or take, but didn't know why.

The TED talk actually cleared a few things up for me. The theory goes back much farther than I realized, to the early 20th century. And they needed all the extra dimensions because they couldn't get the math to work properly with fewer dimensions. I kind of understand that because I studied the attempt to generalize complex numbers, which are plotted in two dimensions (imaginary, up-down, reals left-right) into 3 dimensional numbers. Complex numbers had a lot of nice properties that no longer held in three dimensions, no matter how the basic rules were jiggered. It turned out that there was a 4 dimensional generalization that did work, now called quaternions. Don't ask.

BTW, saying something has X dimensions is not nearly as mysterious as it sounds. It just means the equation has X number of different variables in it. An x-y equation is two dimensions. X-y-z is three dimensions, and so on. A questionnaire that asks for your age, zip code, gender and height is a four dimensional table. No big deal. You don't have to actually try to visualize a four dimensional space.