Thread: Dimensions ?
View Single Post
Old 01-07-2005, 05:47 PM   #7 (permalink)
fckm
Insane
 
Location: Ithaca, New York
A "dimension" isn't anything all that special. A "dimension" in math/physics-speak is not the same "dimension" that appears in scifi. It's not some alternate world where people wear goatees. A "dimension" is basically a free variable.
Consider phase space:
In classical mechanics, if you have some object, this object has certain properties. This object has a position, denoted by three numbers, and a moment, denoted by three more numbers. In total, the object can now be described by six numbers (three for position, three for momentum). These six numbers can be graphed in a six-"dimensional" graph, called phase-space. The object having a certain position and momentum will occupy one point in phase-space. As it moves in position-space, and as it's momentum changes, the object also moves in phase-space.
There. I've just created a six-dimensional space, and I did it without having to resort to using general relativity or string theory.
I believe that the other "dimensions" in string theory are also spatial dimensions, but I'm not really sure.
EDITops, had to correct something
__________________
And if you say to me tomorrow, oh what fun it all would be.
Then what's to stop us, pretty baby. But What Is And What Should Never Be.
fckm is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47