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If you're living in a three dimensional space
passing through the fourth dimension in
one direction, what happens if a
fifth dimension baseball breaks
a window? Everything happens.
Yeah. Physics is messed up.
Hey everybody! Thanks for watching DNews today.
I'm Trace. Get your brains ready!
The new Christopher Nolan science-fiction
epic, Interstellar, was...
well, it was epic! It's a beautiful movie
filled to the brim with
so much science and they
explain some of it, but not all
of it. So, that's why I'm here. For example,
they explained how a wormhole might look,
easy, but didn't explain the idea
of higher dimensions as
thoroughly as I would have liked. I was
watching and there were times when I got lost
in just the massive quantity of
science! So I figured
let's do some explainin'!
Dimensions of space-time are
really complicated. Really, really complicated.
We understand the first three
because we live within them, we have mastered
them even as babies.
The first dimension is a point, a single
point, think of it as like a coordinate.
If the whole universe was a number-line from 0
to 10, one dimension
would be like... 6,
or 3. You'd know exactly where that
was in the universe. Two dimensions
is also pretty simple, two lines,
two numbers. Maybe a six
on the X-axis and a 3 on the
Y-axis. We now know where that is.
We live in the third dimension, so we add another number
line. That's the Z-axis. And those
three numbers tell us exactly where we are
in space. In Interstellar,
they get into higher dimensions.
According to theoretical physics, String
Theory requires 10
dimensions! So we are only in 3
but physicists say that at least
10 dimensions exist.
I know this is tough, but bare with me.
So sticking with the coordinates in
space, let's think of you, right now. Keeping it
simple, you're at a latitude,
a longitude, and an altitude. Those are 3 numbers
that determine your 3-dimensional location, right?
What about your fourth dimensional location?
The fourth dimension in this case would use
time. A timeline would be the fourth
line in our group. With 4 numbers
we know exactly where you are
in 4-dimensional space. You're on top
of a mountain on January 5th, at
12:06 and some odd seconds.
And moving any of those numbers shows
a different location anywhere in the past,
present, or future, or anywhere in
space. It's not too difficult to imagine
so far, I hope. If you were a 4-
-dimensional being, instead of a 3-dimensional one,
moving along your timeline
would be as easy as any other
number-line, just like walking down the road.
So, that being said,
let's blow them out the airlock a little bit.
So try and imagine a world without
linear time, where time is just
another thing that you can move through, like swimming
or walking. moving backward,
forward...easy. It's crazy right?
Now what if you want to move left?
or right?
That is the fifth. What about up
or down in time? Now
you're in a 3-dimensional place and you're moving
around in time, based on probability
and permutations of what
the 3-dimensional spot
could have been, is,
was, or will be
on different possible timelines.
Quantum physics says the fifth and sixth
dimensions are the exploration of all
of these possibilities and all of
permutations of the choices made.
Now, for the last 3
dimensions. If we could take a point
and move through it in space and time
including all the futures and pasts
possible for that point.
What about moving along a number line where the
laws of gravity are different, the
speed of light has changed.
Dimensions seven through ten are
different universes with different
possibilities and impossibilities
and even different laws of
physics. These grasp all the
possibilities and permutations of how each
universe operates and the whole
of reality with all the permutations
therein throughout all of time
and space. The highest dimension
is the encompassment of all
of those universes, possibilities,
choices, times, places
all into a single thing.
This is heady stuff, for
sure! But it comes into play in
Interstellar, a little bit, with the idea of
"Them". No spoilers here, I can't
go into too much. But this is
basically a rundown of what the
dimensions are. Ten dimensions of space-
-time sounds kind of crazy, but
mathematically it jives with how
physicists are beginning to understand the universe
using a single grand theory. Of
course, there's another theory that says there
aren't 10 dimensions, but 11 dimensions
and that's a whole other thing. Let's
not get into it, my head already hurts. In the
end knowing more about dimensions and how
they exist won't really help you in your day-to-day
lives, unless you're a theoretical
physicist. But, there
are people out there who study this this stuff every single
day and are trying to learn more about
how gravity affects time, how the
higher dimensions affect quantum theory.
This is huge big brain stuff
and it is stupid cool.
If you see Interstellar and you want to know more
about the relativity, or black holes,
or whatever, let me know down below
in the comments. Make sure you subscribe for more
DNews, and check out these other videos
down here. They're awesome too. Thanks for watching
everybody!
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