I’ve been trying to somehow visualize what some physicists mean when they talk of the 10-dimensional string theory consisting of 4 ‘big’ dimensions and 6 ‘tiny’ dimensions. How can a dimension be tiny? I thought by definition they were all-encompassing.
A previous discussion on the topic: [thread=460567]Small dimensions?[/thread]
Stranger
The small dimensions curve back on themselves. Brian Greene described it by asking the reader to imagine an ant on a garden hose. When one is close to the hose, you can describe the position of the ant as being some distance from one end of the hose and at some longitude from the axis of the hose. As you move farther away from the hose, the thickness of it becomes smaller and smaller until it looks like the ant is on a line instead of a tube and you only need one coordinate to describe it.
FWIW,
Rob