What do you think is the cause of them? How do they work? How many are there? Do you not believe in dimensions? If not then why? Do you think there is an explanation for them? Is linked to your genetic view?
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OK let’s define what a dimension is.
While there is a formal definition in vectors having to do with minimum spanning bases (did your eyes just glaze over, I think they did), there is a more pragmatic and intuitive way to define them.
Simply put dimensions are arguments in a point location function like p(x,y,z,t); where x, y, and z are spatial dimensions and t is a temporal one. We live in a 4D universe because it takes four, no more or less, dimensions to pin point a place in space-time. For example:
Pretend your point location as you sit at your desk is p(3,2,1,now) meaning 3 m from one wall, 2 m from the other wall, 1 m up from the floor, and the current (now) time. There are all kinds of way to designate the spatial dimensions: i, j, k is one, height, depth, width, is another. But the temporal one must use a time unit.
But look what happens when we leave one dimension without a specific value. The z dimension for instance. You could be anywhere along that vertical dimension, on the floor, on the seat pan of your chair, along the ceiling, or somewhere along that vertical axis in deep space. We need values on all four dimensions to pin point our location in 4D space-time.
That’s how they work. When values are attached to them, they pin-point stuff (like you, me, and my dog Boots) in space and time. Without values, things could be anywhere.
You’ve probably heard of the so-called extra or higher dimensions of string and other bizarre theories. Those have no bearing or meaning in our 4D space-time. In fact the string theory ones were added to make the answers come out right. They were getting “silly” answers like probabilities greater than 1. without those extra dimensions for example. [The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene.]
Some physicists have spent decades looking for real evidence that just one, let alone all those others, extra dimension exists. Thus, for no one has been able to show they are real. As far as I am concerned they are simply a math trick to make the answers come out so they are not “silly.”