Physics thought of the day: been reading up on Loop Quantum Gravity, string theory, etc, in an attempt to unite General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
String theory gives literally endless solutions to the problem. Apart from deciding on which one is true for our universe, every flavor of it requires more than the four dimensions with which we are all intuitively familiar: Up/down, backwards/forwards, front/back, and time. In fact, every example of string theory absolutely must have the extra dimensions or it just doesn't work. They say things like, these dimensions are so small, that maybe they can't be perceived.
Ok.
Guth's inflationary theory says that in the very first infinitesimal fractions of the universe's existence, it inflated by huge orders of magnitude faster than the speed of light. So quickly that probably much of the universe remains far beyond what we can observe because the light from those areas has not had time to reach us.
Lately Guth and others have been wondering if all of the universe expanded at the same rate, and if it did, could it be that some parts of which we can never be aware operate on completely different physical laws.
And some of the quantum mechanics boys are now saying that spacetime itself is quantized. That space is not continuous, but exists as discrete blocks of "spacetime," separated by ... we don't know what, but not spacetime! But the chunks are so small, that like light, we can't see individual photons pouring out of a flashlight, we just see a steady, continuous, beam of light.
So, ok:
What if Guth is right about inflation, and right about not all of it expanding at the same rate? What if the string theory boys are right, and there are many more than the ordinary four dimensions we experience?
So what happened was: when the universe expanded from its initial infinitesimally small state, only the three dimensions of length, width and height expanded; and time, and the other four or five or more dimensions DID NOT EXPAND? They stayed the same infinitesimal size of the initial universe, far below the Planck length (we can talk about that, later). They're still there, evenly distributed throughout the universe, doing whatever it was they did (the path way for gluons? for gravity? to travel between "chunks" of spacetime? The pathways through which time flows?")
Tell you what. Y'all don't worry about it. I'm gonna be up all night. I'll think about it.
String theory gives literally endless solutions to the problem. Apart from deciding on which one is true for our universe, every flavor of it requires more than the four dimensions with which we are all intuitively familiar: Up/down, backwards/forwards, front/back, and time. In fact, every example of string theory absolutely must have the extra dimensions or it just doesn't work. They say things like, these dimensions are so small, that maybe they can't be perceived.
Ok.
Guth's inflationary theory says that in the very first infinitesimal fractions of the universe's existence, it inflated by huge orders of magnitude faster than the speed of light. So quickly that probably much of the universe remains far beyond what we can observe because the light from those areas has not had time to reach us.
Lately Guth and others have been wondering if all of the universe expanded at the same rate, and if it did, could it be that some parts of which we can never be aware operate on completely different physical laws.
And some of the quantum mechanics boys are now saying that spacetime itself is quantized. That space is not continuous, but exists as discrete blocks of "spacetime," separated by ... we don't know what, but not spacetime! But the chunks are so small, that like light, we can't see individual photons pouring out of a flashlight, we just see a steady, continuous, beam of light.
So, ok:
What if Guth is right about inflation, and right about not all of it expanding at the same rate? What if the string theory boys are right, and there are many more than the ordinary four dimensions we experience?
So what happened was: when the universe expanded from its initial infinitesimally small state, only the three dimensions of length, width and height expanded; and time, and the other four or five or more dimensions DID NOT EXPAND? They stayed the same infinitesimal size of the initial universe, far below the Planck length (we can talk about that, later). They're still there, evenly distributed throughout the universe, doing whatever it was they did (the path way for gluons? for gravity? to travel between "chunks" of spacetime? The pathways through which time flows?")
Tell you what. Y'all don't worry about it. I'm gonna be up all night. I'll think about it.
)...
