• Question: are there extra dimensions of space?

    Asked by vpearson to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      There might be! We’re not really sure, to be honest. We know there are three normal dimensions of space and one dimension of time, but trying to do the maths in these four dimensions leads to some strange contradictions.

      We can add extra dimensions into the maths and we find that if we have either six (string theory) or seven (M theory) extra dimensions, all the maths works out much neater. I think there probably are extra dimensions, we just haven’t spotted them yet, but there isn’t yet enough evidence to be sure!

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