How many dimensions are there in reality

These three coordinates are used to pinpoint an object's location in space. Once we know a dot's altitude, longitude, latitude, and position in time, we have the tools needed to plot its existence in the universe as we know it. String theory, also known as "superstring theory," aims to unify two main theories describing how the universe works: general relativity which applies to very large objects and quantum mechanics which applies to very small ones.

After coming up with a theory that hinges on the existence of 10 space dimensions, string theorists then had the job of explaining where those new dimensions were hiding. Their answer: They are just as real as the "big" dimensions we can see, but the extra dimensions are curled up so tightly that they're too small for us to notice directly. Our basic understanding of physics makes this hard to process, but string theorist Brian Greene does a great job of framing the concept in terms most people can understand.

In his TED Talk , Greene compares these invisible dimensions to the cables connected to telephone poles: From a window, a wire looks like a one-dimensional line. But if we were to study it up close we'd see that the cord is actually round, making it three-dimensional.

The existence of these additional six dimensions which we cannot perceive is necessary for String Theory in order for there to be consistency in nature. The fact that we can perceive only four dimensions of space can be explained by one of two mechanisms: either the extra dimensions are compactified on a very small scale, or else our world may live on a 3-dimensional submanifold corresponding to a brane, on which all known particles besides gravity would be restricted aka.

If the extra dimensions are compactified, then the extra six dimensions must be in the form of a Calabi—Yau manifold shown above. While imperceptible as far as our senses are concerned, they would have governed the formation of the universe from the very beginning.

Hence why scientists believe that peering back through time, using telescopes to spot light from the early universe i. Much like other candidates for a grand unifying theory — aka the Theory of Everything TOE — the belief that the universe is made up of ten dimensions or more, depending on which model of string theory you use is an attempt to reconcile the standard model of particle physics with the existence of gravity.

In short, it is an attempt to explain how all known forces within our universe interact, and how other possible universes themselves might work. For additional information, here's an article on Universe Today about parallel universes , and another on a parallel universe scientists thought they found that doesn't actually exist.

There are also some other great resources online. There is a great video that explains the ten dimensions in detail. It has a great page on the ten dimensions. You can also listen to Astronomy Cast. Explore further. More from Other Physics Topics. Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page.

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Share Twit Share Email. Home Physics General Physics. Superstring theory posits that the universe exists in 10 dimensions at once. Credit: National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli. The timeline of the universe, beginning with the Big Bang.

According to String Theory, this is just one of many possible worlds. Credit: NASA. Credit: A Hanson. What if I add a fourth dimension? And I can keep on going, adding more dimensions. Although I might not be able to visualise higher-dimensional spheres, I can describe them symbolically, and one way of understanding the history of mathematics is as an unfolding realisation about what seemingly sensible things we can transcend.

Mathematically, I can describe a sphere in any number of dimensions I choose. Conventionally, they are named x 1 , x 2 , x 3 , x 4 , x 5 , x 6 et cetera.

Just as any point on a Cartesian plane can be described by two x, y coordinates, so any point in a dimensional space can be described by set of 17 coordinates x 1 , x 2 , x 3 , x 4 , x 5 , x 6 … x 15 , x 16 , x Surfaces like the spheres above, in such multidimensional spaces, are generically known as manifolds. Mathematics, in a sense, is logic let loose in the field of the imagination. U nlike mathematicians, who are at liberty to play in the field of ideas, physics is bound to nature, and at least in principle, is allied with material things.

Yet all this raises a liberating possibility, for if mathematics allows for more than three dimensions, and we think mathematics is useful for describing the world, how do we know that physical space is limited to three? Although Galileo, Newton and Kant had taken length, breadth and height to be axiomatic, might there not be more dimensions to our world?

This enchanting social satire tells the story of a humble Square living on a plane, who is one day visited by a three-dimensional being, Lord Sphere, who propels him into the magnificent world of Solids. In this volumetric paradise, Square beholds a three-dimensional version of himself, the Cube, and begins to dream of pushing on to a fourth, fifth and sixth dimension.

Why not a hypercube? And a hyper-hypercube, he wonders? Sadly, back in Flatland, Square is deemed a lunatic, and locked in an insane asylum. One of the virtues of the story, unlike some of the more saccharine animations and adaptations it has inspired, is its recognition of the dangers entailed in flaunting social convention. Then in , an unknown physicist named Albert Einstein published a paper describing the real world as a four-dimensional setting.

In the mathematical formalism of relativity, all four dimensions are bound together, and the term spacetime entered our lexicon. This assemblage was by no means arbitrary. Only in a 4D model of the world can electromagnetism be fully and accurately described. Now multidimensional space became imbued with deep physical meaning. Space, time, matter and force are distinct categories of reality. With special relativity, Einstein demonstrated that space and time were unified, thus reducing the fundamental physical categories from four to three: spacetime, matter and force.

General relativity takes a further step by enfolding the force of gravity into the structure of spacetime itself. Seen from a 4D perspective, gravity is just an artifact of the shape of space. Think of a trampoline, and imagine we draw on its surface a Cartesian grid. Now put a bowling ball onto the grid. Around it, the surface will stretch and warp so some points become further away from each other. General relativity says that this warping is what a heavy object, such as the Sun, does to spacetime, and the aberration from Cartesian perfection of the space itself gives rise to the phenomenon we experience as gravity.

Here, the vast cosmic force holding planets in orbit around stars, and stars in orbit around galaxies, is nothing more than a side-effect of warped space. Gravity is literally geometry in action. If moving into four dimensions helps to explain gravity, then might thinking in five dimensions have any scientific advantage?

Why not give it a go? Even Einstein balked at such an ethereal innovation. What is it? Where is it? In , the Swedish physicist Oskar Klein answered this question in a way that reads like something straight out of Wonderland. Imagine, he said, you are an ant living on a long, very thin length of hose. You could run along the hose backward and forward without ever being aware of the tiny circle-dimension under your feet.

Only your ant-physicists with their powerful ant-microscopes can see this tiny dimension. Only physicists with super-powerful particle accelerators can hope to see down to such a minuscule scale. Unfortunately, the infinitesimal scale of the new dimension made it impossible to imagine how it could be experimentally verified.

Klein calculated that the diameter of the tiny circle was just 10 cm. And so the idea faded out of fashion. Kaluza, however, was not a man easily deterred.