clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

14 surfing through hyperspace
String theory may be more appropriate to departments of mathematics
or even schools of divinity. How many angels can dance on the head of
a pin? How many dimensions are there in a compacted manifold thirty
powers often smaller than a pinhead? Will all the young Ph.D.s, after
wasting years on string theory, be employable when the string snaps?
—Sheldon Glashow, Science
String theory is twenty-first century physics that fell accidentally into
the twentieth century.
—Edward Witten, Science
Various modern theories of hyperspace suggest that dimensions exist beyond
the commonly accepted dimensions of space and time. As alluded to previously,
the entire universe may actually exist in a higher-dimensional space.
This idea is not science fiction: in fact, hundreds of international physics conferences
have been held to explore the consequences of higher dimensions.
From an astrophysical perspective, some of the higher-dimensional theories
go by such impressive sounding names as Kaluza-Klein theory and supergravity.
In Kaluza-Klein theory, light is explained as vibrations in a higher spatial
dimension. 2 Among the most recent formulations of these concepts is superstring
theory that predicts a universe of ten dimensions—three dimensions of
space, one dimension of time, and six more spatial dimensions. In many theories
of hyperspace, the laws of nature become simpler and more elegant when
expressed with these several extra spatial dimensions.
The basic idea of string theory is that some of the most basic particles, like
quarks and fermions (which include electrons, protons, and neutrons), can
be modeled by inconceivably tiny, one-dimensional line segments, or strings.
Initially, physicists assumed that the strings could be either open or closed
into loops, like rubber bands. Now it seems that the most promising
approach is to regard them as permanently closed. Although strings may
seem to be mathematical abstractions, remember that atoms were once
regarded as "unreal" mathematical abstractions that eventually became
observables. Currently, strings are so tiny there is no way to "observe" them.
Perhaps we will never be able to observe them. 3
In some string theories, the loops of string move about in ordinary threespace,
but they also vibrate in higher spatial dimensions perpendicular to our
world. As a simple metaphor, think of a vibrating guitar string whose "notes"
correspond to different "typical" particles such as quarks and electrons along