From: Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Date: Sun Aug 17 1997 - 07:12:02 MDT
John K Clark wrote:
>
>
> The closest thing we have to a theory of quantum gravity and figuring out
> what things are like at less than 10^-33 cm is Superstring Theory.
> It postulates that all "elementary" particles are made up of one dimensional
> strings that vibrate in 10 dimensions of space-time, 9 of space and 1 of time.
> The reason we don't notice the other 6 spatial dimensions in everyday life is
> that they are curled up so tightly that they only become significant when you
> approach the Plank Length.
>
> It is possible to pack an infinite number of 3 dimensional objects in a
> 9 dimensional space and have all the objects be arbitrarily close to each
> other, in fact just 4 dimensions would do. This means that an infinite number
> of objects could communicate with each other in an arbitrarily short amount
> of time, even if the objects are not infinitely small and even if the signal
> only travels at the speed of light, or even less.
>
I'm not an expert, but I don't think this is quite
correct. If this variant of superstring theory is
correct, then matter really is (9+1)-dimensional, not
(3+)-dimensional, and is therefore has finite "thickness"
in the other dimensions. By analogy, you can stack
an infinite number of abstract 2-dimensional objects
together in 3-space without generating any "thickness",
but when you start stacking practical "2-D" pieces of
paper, you build a real book with real thickness.
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