# Debunking dimensions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-dimensions/103220>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 12, 2002, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-dimensions/103220 "2002-04-12T13:18:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![papertiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce73a5/32.png) [@papertiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papertiger)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2002, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-dimensions/103220/21 "2002-04-15T12:55:44Z")

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[Captain Janeway]  
Man the shuttlecrafts! Theres a rift in the google-janglemuffin continuum!  
[/Captain Janeway]

😉

Kabbes:

> [@](#):
>
> When Stephen Hawking talks of 13-dimensional space, he means that there are certain features of reality that only make sense if you use at least 13 independent parameters to model them. Simple as that.

Ok thats a bit beyond me, but I am prepared to accept that it may be the case. What I am trying to do is debunk the notion of parallel or other hidden/folded-up/imperceptible/higher dimensions. The point is that if you use N parameters to describe a thing (whether they are inter-dependant or not) the thing is not an N-dimensional object of itself, it is only an N-dimensional object by virtue of those N dimension-measurements that we apply to it.

True if their are some aspects to reality that we can’t perceive, then their are some dimension-measurements we cannot measure, but this doesn’t make these “unknown dimensions” things in themselves - they are (like dimensions 1, 2 and 3) a way of measuring things.

Hence dimensions have no existence of their own, except in our minds.

Is that such an unreasonable/unscientific argument?

Oh and Monty, I was just having a laugh with the creationism thread. And I don’t expect anybody to accept anything I say as fact, would I post here if I did?

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2002, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-dimensions/103220/22 "2002-04-15T13:55:08Z")

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If you use n coordinates to describe an object, it may not be an n-dimensional object. However, if you **need** n coordinates to specify a point within the object, then it is, in fact, an n-dimensional object. See [here](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Dimension.html) for a more detailed explanation.

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