Abstract
The possible existence of extra dimensions of space is one of the few topics of fundamental physics research that is deeply embedded in popular culture. When he was 4 years old, my son found a comic in a bubble gum wrapper that showed a boy wearing two sets of 3-dimensional glasses: the boy was trying to find the sixth dimension. So even 4-year olds know about extra dimensions. There is currently a TV show where characters routinely enter another dimension by stepping through “dimensional rifts.” People of my age will remember a popular singing group from the 1960s called “The Fifth Dimension.” A very popular TV show from the 1950s, “The Twilight Zone,” started with the words “You unlock this door with a key of imagination, beyond it is another dimension…”
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Notes
- 1.
At least they seem to be infinite. We can only see 14 billion light-years out into the Universe. Since the Universe is about 14 billion years old this is as far as light could have traveled in the time since the Big Bang.
- 2.
PET stands for positron emission tomography.
- 3.
Up to a factor of the speed of light squared, from Einstein’s formula.
- 4.
The proton is the nucleus of the simplest atom, hydrogen, which also contains one electron hovering around the proton.
- 5.
The theory of photons and electrons is known by the formidable title of quantum electrodynamics or QED for short. The theory of gluons and quarks was, somewhat playfully, dubbed quantum chromodynamics or QCD.
References
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B. Mahon “The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell,” Wiley, New York (2004).
D. Hambling “Let the light shine in,” The Guardian (UK May 30, 2002), http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/medicalscience/story/0,,724257,00.html.
L. Randall “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions,” Ecco, New York (2005).
L. Krauss “Hiding in the Mirror: The Quest for Alternate Realities, from Plato to String Theory (by way of Alice in Wonderland, Einstein, and The Twilight Zone),” Penguin, New York (2006).
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Bars, I., Terning, J. (2010). The Popular View of Extra Dimensions. In: Nekoogar, F. (eds) Extra Dimensions in Space and Time. Multiversal Journeys. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77638-5_12
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