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- Imagine you have a television remote that wasn't just a television
remote. What if this remote could also change the universal channel, and
even switch to other dimensions. Don't like this dimension? Sick of all
the paperwork your boss keeps harassing you about? No problem, just
switch over to another dimension. Even take a holiday there for a while,
once you've had enough, just press a button and you're back home in
your own dimension. Brings a whole new meaning to the term "channel
surfing" right?
Of course the reality of this awesome device would only be possible in
the distant future. But scientists are already laying down the
foundations to make this a reality, thanks to the fourth level of
parallel universes and M-Theory.
This level of parallel universes and dimensions could exist in the same
space and time as our own, there could be a lion sitting right where you
are now, in another dimension of course. There could theoretically be
an infinite number of the dimensions existing like layers on all around
us. Hard to imagine? Think of your television, you can see and hear
everything that's on one channel because your television is tuned to
that frequency. But that doesn't mean the other channels no longer
exist, they still exist and carry on as they always have, in the same
space and time as the rest of the channels, you just aren't tuned to any
of them, and therefore cannot see them. So what if there possibly
thousands of worlds around us, living breathing creatures, fireballs
from a volcanic eruption, even an alien invasion happening all around
you, but you're just not tuned to that dimensions frequency? It's a
spectacular realisation with endless possibilities.
Physicists believe these extra dimensions and universes could actually
exist, and they may be created by either quantum fluctuations, or by
"Branes" Smashing together. These two concepts are incredibly complex in
their own respects, and I won't go into much detail. But for now lets
just picture two pieces of paper, one on top of the other, separated by a
few millimetres. These two pieces of paper are blowing around in the
wind and eventually these two pieces of paper will collide in different
areas. Now imagine these pieces of paper are each a parallel universes
or "Branes", and that each collision creates a new universe or Brane.
This is a simplified explanation for this part of M-Theory.
So how can we tell if these extra dimensions really exist? Surprisingly
scientists are using Quantum Mechanics, the study of some of the
smallest imaginable particles, smaller than even atoms, to prove the
existence of an entire universe.
The Quantum world is an indefinite and chaotic world full of all sorts
of weird and wonderful particles, from electrons and protons, to all
manner of unimaginably small objects. None of which seem to know what
they're doing. According to Quantum Mechanics, an electron, the particle
that carries electricity, can be in two places at the same time. Other
particles can appear out of nothing in one spot, then completely
disappear into nothing and reappear out of nothing somewhere completely
different. But lets just focus on those electrons for now.
An electron is described as being in many different places at once, in
parallel states. Now, we know our whole universe was once smaller than
an electron and if an electron can be in different places at once in
parallel states, then the universe must also exists in many places at
once in parallel states. Once you realize that, then you inevitably get
parallel universes, there's simply no other choice.
Scientists are currently trying to either confirm or disprove this
theory using giant particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) at CERN, and the Tevatron Collider at Fermi-Lab. Using these
massive scientific machines, they are trying to find the Gravition, the
particle they believe is responsible for carrying gravity.
Gravity as we all know it, is what's responsible for breaking our phones
when we drop them. But gravity also serves a greater purpose, it holds
the planets of our solar system in orbit around the sun, as well as the
moon orbiting the Earth. It even keeps the entire milky way together.
But in spite of all that, it's actually an incredibly weak force. The
simple action of lifting your pen off the desk has overcome the force of
gravity. So why is gravity so weak? Scientists believe that gravity is
so weak because gravitons are capable of jumping to other dimensions. So
by using a particle accelerator to smash particles into each other at
close to the speed of light, they are hoping to see the graviton go into
the other dimension, or more specifically, not see it.
Surprisingly they hope to confirm the existence of the graviton, by
never even seeing it. It's actually a simple method of looking for
something based on th concept that if all other possibilities have been
exhausted, whatever is left must be the answer, no matter how
implausible it may be. The theory states that if they smash a Proton and
an Anti-Proton together, they will create an intense ball of energy,
within which particles will come from the remains of the protons. These
particles however only live for billionths and even trillionths of a
second. But scientists don't think they'll ever actually see the
graviton, because it would have already escaped to another dimension at
the exact moment of the impact.
So how can we prove the existence of something we can never see? In
order to answer this question, scientists are hoping to put these
particle collisions back together, and if there's any unexplained or
missing energy once its all back together, that would most likely be the
missing graviton. The logic behind it is that at the very instant of
the collision, the graviton will escape to another dimension, and
therefore will not be detected by the equipment. Its like getting a
jigsaw puzzle with a missing piece, except in this case, a missing piece
is what you want.
If the scientists at the particle colliders can find (or should I say
lose) these gravitons, it may very well confirm the theory that we are
surrounded by extra dimensions and universes. Of course there is a lot
more work to be done before such a radical theory could be confirmed.
But if it ever is, it would bring about massive changes to how we
perceive the world around us. But could we ever travel to these extra
dimensions and universes. It may be possible if we could focus enough
energy at a single point in space, to tear a hole in space itself and
create a wormhole to a parallel universe, or perhaps we could change our
tuning to that of the other dimension's frequency? unfortunately no-one
really knows, there are theories and models both for an against this
idea, but with the advances in modern physics, science is seriously
considering the possibility of extra dimensions and Parallel Universes.
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