# Help me understand the concept of "dimensions" \[new title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978 "2003-11-02T13:34:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/1 "2003-11-02T13:34:01Z")
On Halloween I had a discussion about ghost stories etc (as you do) when someone mentioned a story about demons a friend of a friend who’s a theoretical physics specialist said that “possibly a door opened between dimensions” according to him other dimensions really exist but you can’t really conceptualise them but occasionally you get a glimpse via advanced mathematics and its “scary”. He kind of creeped me out, what was he talking about?!? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/2 "2003-11-02T13:57:56Z")
String Theory allows for the existance of 10 or 11 dimensions, but I don’t see how the equations involved woul reveal demons. IANAM but I think your friend was BSing you. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/3 "2003-11-02T14:12:57Z")
BTW… if you ask a mod to retitle this, you’ll probably get some real math people in here. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/4 "2003-11-02T14:53:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > \*\*BTW… if you ask a mod to retitle this, you’ll probably get some real math people in here. \*\* BAGAHI LACA BACHABE _Noether_ BAGAHI LACA BACHABE _Kolmogorov_ BAGAHI LACA BACHABE _ultrafilter_ ! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/5 "2003-11-02T14:59:11Z")
\*\*Angua Chronos Achenar\*\* ! (if they do any vanity searches, we’ll have six people here to hash this out 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/6 "2003-11-02T15:19:21Z")
It would also help, Midwinter, if you would break up your question into several grammatically correct sentences. It’s nearly impossible to understand what you’re saying when you write in one long jammed-together sentence. In any case, I think you should go back to your friend-of-a-friend, the physicist, and ask him what he’s talking about. We could make all sorts of guesses as to what he’s talking about, but they would only be guesses. It’s his job to explain what he means, not ours to make some sort of meaning out of your report of what he said. ---
**Author:** ![einstein\_s\_lovechild\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e36b37/32.png) [@einstein\_s\_lovechild\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/einstein_s_lovechild_1)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/7 "2003-11-02T15:29:15Z")
Rule number 1 - never let a theoretical physicist stress you out. There may be other dimensions but it hasn’t been proven. Since your experience of them is likely to be zippo, why not worry about something else? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/8 "2003-11-02T17:08:20Z")
Your friend has most likely gone over from the realm of theoretical physics to the realm of pure, uneducated speculation. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/9 "2003-11-02T17:29:09Z")
Sounds like the _Neanderthal Parallax_ stories to me (And likely many other SF stories I don’t know about). In that triology, a door was opened to a parallel universe, and although there were no demons involved, there were Neanderthals, who had become the dominant hominid species in that universe. The door was caused by a quantum-computing experiment gone wrong. It was based on the idea that quantum events occur across time and so the computer reached out to other “simultaneous” universes where it also existed while trying to factor a number that should have been prime. The number was too large, however, and a flaw in the computer led to it accessing a universe (ours) in which it did NOT exist, but in doing so it managed to transfer a Neanderthal over. I do not know the math enough to know how much of this concept is theoretically possible and how much of it came from the author’s mind, but I do know that math allows for many more dimensions (and universes, I guess) than we know of here. Sounds to me like your f-o-f was just telling ghost stories with just enough facts in them to make you really wonder about it… the sign of a good story teller, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/10 "2003-11-02T17:29:25Z")
For **Wendell** sake, I’ll edit her post a little. Please tell me if I messed up what you intended to say. > [@](#): > > On Halloween I was having a discussion about ghost stories and all that when someone mentioned a story about demons. Apparently, a friend of a friend (who’s a theoretical physics specialist) said that “possibly a door opened between dimensions.” > > According to him other dimensions really exist, but you can’t really conceptualise them. However, he says you can occasionally get a glimpse via advanced mathematics and it’s “scary”. > > He kind of creeped me out, what was he talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/11 "2003-11-02T17:33:15Z")
And doesn’t saying “other dimensions” imply that we’re going to be attacted by tesseractal demons? I think “universes” might be more appropriate, but I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/12 "2003-11-02T21:06:40Z")
[The master mentions this](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdimensions.html) > [@](#): > > If you mean “dimensions” in the sense of “universes,” as in “a creature from another dimension,” come to wreak havoc on earth … well, forget it, there’s only this one universe as far as anyone knows. The use of the word “dimension” in that sense is a crutch for lamer science fiction writers. BTW, NoClueBoy, if you’re trying to summon mathematicians, is it enough to say their names? Shouldn’t you paint some pentagra\* or sacrifice a virgin or something? I’m joking. I know there’s absolutely no way it’s not ‘pentagrams’ ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/13 "2003-11-02T21:17:31Z")
Demons only occur in non- Heterotic superstring theories, they are the supersymetric partners of angels… ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/14 "2003-11-02T22:05:18Z")
“Einstein sold me this golf club. Nice man–made a fortune in physics.” - Rodney Dangerfield (Caddyshack) [http://www.category.org/browse/video/161372/](http://www.category.org/browse/video/161372/) ---
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/15 "2003-11-02T22:31:01Z")
Ohhh a new title…(sorry if it wasn’t clear before) Yeah, Speaker for the Dead, that rewrite is pretty much what I meant, thanks. (I usually don’t have a problem with run on sentences) He freaked me out because all the time I’ve known him he’s been 100% serious, not the sort of person who’d make stuff up…guess you had to be there 🙂 I was wondering if anyone else had ever heard anything like that, any mathematical proof concerning the likelihood of alternate realitys. Hope the Mathematician bait lures some of the critturs in 😃 Thanks everyone ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/16 "2003-11-02T23:02:03Z")
Don’t let these folks decieve; there are Things residing beyond the threshold you can detect, in dimesions beyond human comprehension. Beware of them. ---
**Author:** ![JRootabega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@JRootabega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRootabega)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/17 "2003-11-02T23:07:59Z")
Yes. Stay out of New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/18 "2003-11-03T04:01:49Z")
Dimensions are merely measurements…true, the most common are length, width, depth, time, but you could also use frequency, amplitude, temperature, RPM, or any other variable you can think of. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/19 "2003-11-03T05:02:59Z")
Should the idea of sight be frightening to a blind person? Get excited by ideas that stretch your imagination! String theory, also known as _The Theory of Everything_ suggests that there are eleven demensions. But the development of this theory is in its early stages. Maybe it will pan out. Maybe it won’t. But it’s interesting! I am not a scientist or a mathematician, but I get a natural high from listening to possibilities. PBS has a series showing now called _The Eloquent Universe_. I don’t know how many hours it will run, but two of the programs have already been on. It talks about String Theory in terms that are appropriate for a layperson. I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but I think it is fascinating. And, of course, the series in available on tape and DVD. BTW, my original question was prompted because I do not have much depth perception. It doesn’t scare me a bit to contemplate what I am missing. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978/20 "2003-11-03T07:30:56Z")
Shade, SDSTAFF Dex is “The master”? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-concept-of-dimensions-new-title/210978.md?page=2)