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Saran Kumar

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How many dimensions are defined till now?

We have learnt from school that there are three dimensions lenght,breadth and width.Professor Stephen Hawking suggests that there is a fourth dimension of 'time'.I live in India and my teachers used to say that ancient saints in India had abilities to see upto 12 dimensions.
When I google I feel confused by the large volumes of undigestable information available(mostly relating to trigonometry).I would like to know what is your understanding about the number of different dimensions.
Any information regarding the concepts would be helpful.

Topics: belief physics time
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    Saran Kumar

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    Apr 1 2011: Thanks JImmy and Sabin.
    Mtheory in wiki is confusing.The video was interesting and shed some light on the dimension concepts.
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      Jimmy Strobl 30+

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      Apr 1 2011: Well there is a good movie by "Brian Greene" on M-theory
      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/
      I have the movie on my computer but it is as part of a Swedish series and not very suitable for for English (or Hindi) users...
      The website link provided seems to be the best bet of finding it... I did not check throughly but i hope you find it if you wish.
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    Jimmy Strobl 30+

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    Mar 31 2011: Well the closest thing to 12 dimensions that I've come is the M-theory and it has 11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mtheory
    I still don't know what to believe...
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    Sabin Muntean 30+

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    Mar 31 2011: I can fully recommend this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjsgoXvnStY that I stumbled upon about two years ago explaining what the first nine dimensions could represent and raising the question of what the tenth might be.

    I especially liked the idea of the fourth dimension being an "ondulating snake" with our fetal form at one end and our deceased form at the other. However, in the same way as flatlanders only see a momentary form of the third dimension, to them only the second, so do we only see a momentary form of ourselves and everything else around us in the fourth dimension, to us only the third.

    Starting with the fifth however things get pretty crazy. Whereas time is something we can all relate to, a dimension containing all possible outcomes in all possible universes is not.
    Then again, that's why I don't study theoretical physics. :D
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