Pen Truth Contributor
Since I first learned of the theory several years ago (and I mean several), String theory took some time for me to warm up to. The explanations of vibrations or wave states appealed to me because they are easy to identify with, especially since energy is, to put it succinctly energetic, other aspects did not make it into my model of the universe. Gravity; wow, how to get a handle on that one. Not only do we (when I use the term we, I refer to the collective we of society, my belief being that what science knows, society knows as a whole.) Not only do we not know what gravity is, we don’t know what space is. Hell, we don’t know what time is. I am mechanically minded and approach problems from that prospective. I have to be able to build the model in my mind and play with it. If it works, it is incorporated into my mental model of the universe.
The question again has been gravity, (the bowling ball and the rubber sheet example) as a weak force. Gravity should be a strong force, but it is not. The string theory version postulates that gravity is stronger in one of the other extra dimensions and bleeds through so that we experience gravity as a weak force in our dimension. On a recent TV program, When Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson postulated that gravity just might exist in one of the extra dimensions, where a 2D dimension might be curled up into very small subatomic tubes with gravity inside, “hockey puck” I thought. This 2D dimension rolled into a subatomic toilet paper roll stuck in my craw as much as the rubber sheet example of gravity.
Matter, space and energy are aloof; it is difficult to get a good grasp of the true nature of these components of our universe, we need a new starting point. Aside from the well known description E=mc2, what exactly is matter? How are matter and gravity related to each other? Is matter also made up of gravity? How exactly do matter, gravity, space and time interact? When an atomic bomb detonates, what happens to the gravity component of matter? What happens to time?
I have the July/August 2009 issue of Discover Magazine where there is a story about Steven Hawking. I tried to read it a few nights ago while in bed, but fell asleep before finishing the second page. The magazine laid on the floor next to my bed for a few days, folded over with page 45 facing up. On this page is that tired and infamous 2D wireframe drawing of space/time being warped by gravity. This morning as I was waking up, I gazed at the upside down image and thought; “Silly portraying space/time this way.” Then I thought; “What would happen if the open end of the warp were closed creating a sphere?
A flood of questions entered my mind. What if gravity did not curl 2D space into tubes but rather into subatomic 2D spheres? The spheres would still only have two dimensions. Like a balloon, there would be a 2D surface, void inside except for the force of gravity. Could these 2D spheres then express themselves in our 3D space/time? What if these spheres aggregated? What if two or more of the extra dimensions were affected in the same way by gravity? Could these extra dimensions aggregate? Would these different dimensional spheres represent the different subatomic charges? Are these 2D spheres what 3D space/time experiences as matter? Is it possible that gravity never escapes these other dimensions that we only experience the effect it has on space/time?
Within the span of a few minutes all of the ideas within multi dimensional string theory that I once could not accept became plausible for me. Not only that, but it resolved for me how matter could create wells in space/time that we then experience as gravity.
The final conclusion that I came too is this; I think too much. Is the Simpson’s on tonight?