On
The 4th Spatial Dimension
and How it Manifests Itself To Us |
UNDER CONSTRUCTION! - Continually updated so please check back! Last updated on: 01/03/2002 |
Michael (Tony) A. Sakovsky Sr. 07/01/2001
Preface: This document attempts to provide a unique explanation of why a forth spatial dimension is required to completely explain our universe and why our universe appears to be 'short' this spatial dimension. It does this by primarily using logic as a tool and is based upon current findings in physics and other scientific areas as evidence. It draws the reader down a path that is logically irrefutable and is understandable by the common man. Higher level mathematics are NOT required to understand or explain the concepts herein nor is one required to understand such things as vector spaces and tensor fields to understand how our universe works at it's most basic level. As we postulate that our universe must have a forth spatial dimension, as did by Kaluza-Klein, and if this forth spatial dimension is NOT a 'hypersurface' (Hypersurface is a trick used by physicists to add an extra dimension without actually having to explain it's properties or origin!) in which our three perceived spatial dimensions are embedded then we must ask WHY do we ONLY perceive three spatial dimensions and one time dimension? We also assume that the 4th dimension is NOT compactified for reasons which will become clear later. Within this document an excepted explanation is never taken at face value and we attempt to dig deeper for answers regarding these and other questions. Sometimes this requires re-asking the 'simple' questions or a postmodern approach. We re-ask such questions as; 'what is time?', or 'what is the most basic constituent of matter?'. These may seem like questions with obvious answers to some people but surprisingly physicists CANNOT really answer these questions yet. Answering the Unanswerable: In postulating that a forth spatial dimension DOES in fact exist then, not only will it finally be possible to answer these unanswered questions (and many others), but it brings us closer to understanding what reality actually is. Coincidently the following unanswered questions are a few of the driving forces behind the reason for my research into a 'real' explanation of our world. - Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal: certain measurements disturb
the system and push the wavefunction into a superposed state or a state
where the attributes of the wavefunction are unknown. (WHY is this?
It seems illogical when talking of discreet particles. And in reality it
IS illogical when discreet particles are measured)
SYMMETRY Symmetry is defined as: sym·me·try (sm-tr) n., pl.
sym·me·tries.
Symmetry dicates that the actions, aspects or effects of anything be symmetrical. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the law of symmetry coming into play in Newton's Third law of motion. Not only must the effects be symmetrical but the aspects of the total system must be equal and opposite. For example; reflection in a mirror, or gravity (think about planetary gravitation; a planet pulls in equal an opposite directions, the planet itself is round and symmetrical. Symmetry exists in EVERYTHING. This is sometimes hard to understand or except in our world where objects seem to exist asymmetrically. An apple or a cloud or a rock is NOT symmetrical by our crude methods of measuring. We must delve deeply into the structure of the universe in order to see the true symmetry in all the objects around us. But in order to understand the universe more completely we must ask ourselves the following questions; At what level does true symmetry actually occur? - We shall look deep enough into the structure of space and matter to see where the first and truest level of symmetry occurs. Is Symmetry is THE most powerful force in our universe? Once the answer to the first question is answered it becomes obvious that it IS the most powerful force in the universe. Is Symmetry actually defined by the conservation laws? And could they
possibly be written symmetrically as follows:
Some theories associate the amount of symmetry with levels of entropy; for example the theory of Ugly Symmetry does this (Shu-Kun Lin, lin@mdpi.org, http://mdpi.org/lin/, MDPI, Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Sangergasse 25, Basel CH-4054 Switzerland.) Which simply stated says that higher levels of symmetry are associated with equally higher levels of entropy/distribution/disorder. When any system is examined on a large enough scale this is simply NOT true or said differently; the total forces acting on the system being examined must be accounted for in the formulas. The Ugly Symmetry theory and many theories like this only consider a small portion of the effects within and on the system in question. They also deal with ideal gases and ideal environments. (Ideal meaning that there is no perceived outside influences). This is where the theories go off track. By doing this the theories become complex exercises for the mind and are minimally applicable to reality. A simple exercise which demonstrates why higher symmetry denotes lower entropy is as follows: Imagine a substance, it can be a gas of the same atoms or different types of atoms or molecules and atoms mixed, it does not matter, in space removed from any perceptable gravity field. This gas would over time fall under the influence of gravity of the individual atoms and coalesce into a larger body, a planet, planetoid, rock, star, or anything in between given enough starting matter. With enough time and mass this body would possibly form a blackhole. Each being more symmetrical (spherical) then the latter. And the sphere is the closest example of perfect symmetry we have. But the blackhole is, as I will demonstrate later, an example of the ultimate symmetry both internally and externally. And since symmetry is the greatest universal force we will demonstrate how spatial dimensions MUST adhere to the law of symmetry and are, in fact, the pure essence of symmetry and also how spatial dimensions contribute to the symmetry in EVERY effect that manifests itself to us. DIMENSIONS: We live in a world in which we perceive three spatial dimensions. Or put another way, three degrees of freedom of movement manisfest themselves to us. Typically and for brevity we refer to them as 3D. Typically the degrees of freedom are measured relative to each other. They are said to be orthogonal to each other, or offset by 90 degrees from each other. We call them typically up/down, left/right, backward/forward, or many other words which are typically used to describe a direction relative to us and always paired with a description of the opposite direction. The dimensions, each examined separately and taken by themselves are symmetrical, meaning there is always two directions in which a body may move or travel relative to it's current position and motion; ie left/right is one dimension, up/down is another. This is the Law of Symmetry coming into play regarding the separate spatial dimensions. But now we must ask ourselves why there are only three perceived dimensions. Three is not a symmetrical number. By definition it is an odd number and cannot be made symmetrical by using whole integers. (It also introduces us to the problem of why molecules can be non-chiral but that is a topic for a future discussion.) Why not two spatial dimensions? or four? or sixteen for that matter? Why does it appear that the number of spatial dimensions does NOT adhere to the Law of Symmetry. The answer is actually simple; the number of dimensions MUST adhere to the Law or Symmetry, we are simply missing some key perspective. We know for a fact that there are more than two dimensions since we can percieve three. Our senses force us to preclude that there is any less than three. Since we know that there are at least three and we MUST adhere to the law of symmetry then we must assume or, at least, start with the assumption that there MIGHT possibly be more and that it must be an even number, so we must begin with four dimensions since four is our first symmetrical number above three. Immediately most people will say that time is naturally the forth spatial dimension and they may ask why have I not mentioned time up to this point? They may also cite Einstein and use his Theory of Relativity to argue (usually with evangalistic fervor) that Einstein proved that time is a spatial dimension. What he proved though was that there is a perceived relationship between time and space NOT that time is a spatial dimension. While time is a dimension in that it is a measurable quality, one must remember that this paper is discussing spatial dimensions. Time is definately not part of the three spatial dimensions since it does not fit into the definition of a spatial dimension in which it has degrees of freedom of movement. One argument that physicists will bring up at this point is that time manifests itself to us in a different way. But yet there is evidence that this is not true, that it is simply a preceived effect on spatial distances, and there is no true effect. They may offer mathematical explanations which attempt to prove that time is spatial because the time variable fits into MANY formula, BUT they NEVER explain how they made the intuitive jump to explain HOW time is spatial. They only succeed in confusing the concept of spatial dimensions further since, as stated before, time IS a dimension, just NOT a spatial one. I will go into some depth later regarding what time is and how it does interact with our spatial dimensions. It is an important factor when preceptions between multiple reference systems are to be compared and since we are going to speak initially about a single reference frame we have no need to introduce time yet. Einstein's theories of relativity are effective in demonstrating what the perceived effects will be mathematically so there is no reason to re-invent the wheel so to speak. At the outset it is important to state a few facts regarding spatial
dimensions. Most of the facts are obvious but some are not, so we
must clarify as follows:
Based upon observation one can make the statement that we live in a universe which consists of spatial dimensions. We have the ability to move in three ?degrees of freedom?. This was demonstated in the previous section on Symmetry. Again we ask 'Why only three degrees of freedom?'. Why are we restricted to three? What process or law governs this? To answer these questions and more we must examine what a spatial dimension really is. We must do this by taking one dimension and adding from there. To begin I will list the current known spatial dimensions and discuss each in turn. Some are incorrectly classified as spatial and I will logically demonstrate why: * - It is important to state that we are discussing spatial dimensions in the context of singular existence with no higher dimensions in the context of the discussion. For each spatial dimension we must remember that NOTHING exists outside or inside the actual dimensional universe unless defined by another dimension. We must not let our minds trick us into adding extra dimensions or phenomena where there is no need to since this would only obscure the logic we are unfolding here. We are only discussing proved observations within this section. Dimension Zero / Point of Existance: Geometry:
Dimension One / Single Dimension Continuum: Geometry:
Continuity:
Change:
Symmetry:
Dimension Two / Two Dimensional Continuum: Geometry:
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