From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Mon Feb 15 1999 - 15:27:40 MST
John Clark wrote:
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> Natasha Vita-More <natasha@natasha.cc> Wrote:
>
> >I need an explanation from someone(s) on the lists of superstring theory;
> >why 11 dimensions rather than 12, and also membrane theory.
>
> I don't know, last I heard 10 dimensions were sufficient but things are changing
> so fast it's hard to keep up. The gravitational field at a point can not be expressed
> with a single number, you need 10 numbers (dimensions) for each point.
> For this reason the gravitational field must be a tensor field. The number 10 comes up
> because there are 10 and only 10 ways time and the three dimensions of space can
> be expressed in pairs. I don't know why you'd need 11 dimensions.
>
John, please explain this. I count the following:
for dimensions x,y,z, and t:
x,t
x,y
x,z
y,t
y,z
z,t
so unless you count x,x y,y z,z and t,t, then you only have six pairs. Am I missing
something? If you count double pairs like that, why not reverse pairs as well? I must be
thinking too literally....
Mike Lorrey
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