Endless Art
In school, and through experience, we learn about dimensions. We learn the difference between 2D and 3D art. We experience 3D effects in movies and art with 3D glasses. If you’ve taken art classes, you probably learned how to draw a 3D cube. In math classes, we learn to graph on coordinate planes that have X,Y, and sometimes Z axes. We become familiar with the 4 dimensions we can perceive: 3 space dimensions (up and down, left and right, back and forth) and 1 time dimension. But these may not be the only dimensions in our reality.
Disclaimer: I am not a physicist. This is simply my understanding after reading about quantum theories.
Quantum Physics is the study of the behavior of matter and energy at molecular, atomic, nuclear, and even smaller levels. Scientists have been searching for a theory that would unite quantum physics with astrophysics, which would unite everything in the universe in relation to energy and matter. You may have heard these theories thrown around before. String theory has been around for decades and was a favorite for some time. M theory is a somewhat newer theory (first described in 1995). I’m not going to go into the specifics of these, because though I enjoy reading these theories, I am not a physicist and would probably misunderstand parts of these theories. However, one part that has fascinated me is the probability of 6 or 7 more dimensions than the 4 we are familiar with. So, I’m going to go through a common description and use pictures to help illustrate, and then I’m going to explain how I understand our place inside of our dimensional reality.
First, both String theory and M theory require the existence of submicroscopic dimensions, or dimensions within dimensions. In String theory there are 6 of these dimensions and in M theory there are 7. These are dimensions that we cannot see, yet they exist within the larger spatial dimensions we do see. They are compacted and curled in on each other; this is what makes them submicroscopic. To describe how this works, one of the go-to examples is carpet. Think of a carpet with loops. When you walk into a carpeted room, you see the carpet as a whole floor covering. That is one dimension.
Then if you look down near your feet, you can focus on a smaller section of carpet, and see the texture of the carpet. The texture is the next smaller dimension within the whole carpet dimension.
After this observation, if you then got down on your hands and knees to inspect the textured carpet, you would see that the texture is made up of individual loops. Each individual loop is its own smaller dimension inside the texture dimension. Letting your curiosity lead you, pull one of the loops out to look closer. As you pull the loop from the carpet, you see threads starting to unravel. These threads that made up the loops are twisted around each other and folded in half to create a loop. These threads are the next smaller dimensions inside the loop.
We could continue with this example until we got down to atoms and quarks, but that would be tedious and unnecessary. Much like these threads are twisted and folded, these quantum theories suggest that the microscopic dimensions behave the same way. These smaller theoretical dimensions are twisted and folded into each other, making up the dimensions we can see and perceive. They are like threads (or strings?) that make up the fabric of our reality. But, how come we can’t perceive them like we do the larger 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th dimensions? I think about it like endless art. Digital artists have the ability to create art within art within art ad infinitum. Below is a video of an artist showcasing their endless art.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
I think about our ability to perceive dimensions as starting in the zoomed out position and being able to zoom in once or twice, maybe three times. But we are stuck in these bigger dimensions. We can’t zoom in any further to see any of the smaller dimensions within dimensions. However, based upon what we DO know and our experiences in the bigger dimensions, we can predict the likelihood that more smaller dimensions exist even though we can’t see them.
A theme throughout scientific history is predicting the existence of things we cannot see, and then, with the further development of technology, the visual confirmation of predicted microscopic things. These 6 to 7 tiny dimensions cannot yet be proven to exist, which is why we have theories like String theory and M theory. I do get excited, though, about the possibility that they exist. I hope my explanations were clear and that the phrase “fabric of reality” takes on new meaning for you like it did for me when I read about tiny dimensions.