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Multiple dimensions of time

[Tycho?]
in Relativity

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So, some guy is proposing that time has multiple dimensions, instead of just the single "4th dimension" that we are all familiar with. He is not a crackpot, and his stuff predicts and explains small errors apparent in time measurement with clocks aboard GPS satellites.

 

You can get a link to the introduction part here:

http://www.stanford.edu/~afmayer/

He ideosn't seem to be a crackpot. There have been a few paper in the past which include extra dimensions with a negative signature in the metric. This idea is a little different - I will be interested to see if it comes to anything.

 

It is a little strange that a search of spires turns up zero papers from him though....

http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+A+MAYER%2C+a

Heh, saw this on Digg then came here to ask about it. Looks like someone beat me to it.

 

I really like this idea. I've never liked the "loaf of bread" way that Brian Greene described spacetime.

 

To quote Thomas Dolby (or perhaps Thomas L. Friedman) "The world is flat!"

He sez:

 

"Imagine that 'the arrow of time' in the Universe, like gravity on Earth, is pretty much the same everywhere, yet also different everywhere relative to everywhere else. That means that the 'arrow of time' points in different directions in spacetime depending on where you are, so time has a geometry just like space has a geometry. The novel idea that there are an infinite number of time dimensions in the Universe revolutionizes gravitational theory and much of modern science with it. A number of outstanding scientific mysteries are definitively solved, including observations that lead to the concepts of 'dark energy' and 'dark matter'."

 

That's one big claim

That's one big claim

 

Indeed! I'm just hoping that once maybe one of these theories will pan out under scrutiny.

I am wading my way through the first lecture he posted, but I have to take it in small bites. Too bad I have become so jaundiced by the flood of gibberish that I have seen on this topic that I can't stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.

OK, fair-enough, he is a crackpot then (alternatively termed a 'biologist').

Interesting. I am not too fussed (at this stage) about the multiple time dimensions he mentions in the intro however after reading the first lecture notes (pdf) that he presents I would be very interested to know whether the GPS anomalies, orbit decays (spin down) and other anomalies presented coupled with the rotating reference frame (& the radius curve) are still valid and 'unsolved' by physics. Many references presented with regard to these anomalies are from the 60's 70's and 80's. Have these been solved or could this guy really have valid answers to something (even if he is a biologist) that physicists have been puzzled by to this day?

 

I would really like to know more about the things this guy is claiming to have solved. He seems to be making a lot of sense and testable predictions that, if found correct, could humble a many physicist. Please enlighten.

I've not read all of what was written, but at the moment I have issues with the phrase: "...there are an infinite number of time dimensions in the Universe..."

 

But personally I think he's vaguely on the right track.

the speed of time
????

speed = space / time

What does mean "speed of time" ???

Sorry but your definition of speed of time doesn't make sense to me. It's like saying the speed of space. Does it make sense to you ?

For me time is one aspect of motion, the other aspect is space.

To have motion you need time and space.

It's a bit too pat, and tries to explain a bit too much for me to buy into to this. I suspect that it will be placed in the same class as multiverse, and quantum mind theories - interesting but not mainstream.

 

I am also not comfortable with the whiff of religion that comes up occasionally in this work.

  • 4 years later...

I AGREE 100% and I have been writing about TIME for years and have a website and book. The website already expalains WHY there are multiple fourth dmensions! ultimate-theroy-of-everything dot com. If the Earth and Moon have 2 different RATES of time flow because of different Dilation rates, then how they BOTH have the same FOURTH Dimension?

 

 

I AGREE 100% and I have been writing about TIME for years and have a website and book. The website already expalains WHY there are multiple fourth dmensions! ultimate-theroy-of-everything dot com. If the Earth and Moon have 2 different RATES of time flow because of different Dilation rates, then how they BOTH have the same FOURTH Dimension?

 

 

 

But there is no absolute time. It is different for everyone and everything in motion with respect to everything else. It is different depending on location in a gravitational field. So this means an infinite number of time dimensions?

 

And space is also affected by motion and the presence of mass/energy. For example, space on the surface of the Earth is warped more than space above the Moon (in the radial direction)because of its greater mass/energy density. Because of this, in the theory does space also have an infinite number of dimensions?

Edited by I ME

I AGREE 100% and I have been writing about TIME for years and have a website and book. The website already expalains WHY there are multiple fourth dmensions! ultimate-theroy-of-everything dot com. If the Earth and Moon have 2 different RATES of time flow because of different Dilation rates, then how they BOTH have the same FOURTH Dimension?

 

 

I would like to hear what you have been writting on time. I do not think time is a physical thing. I say that the concept of time is only a manifestation of particles moving in space.

 

Also, when it comes to the idea of dimensions. Do you think that dimensions are a real physical things?

(...) That means that the 'arrow of time' points in different directions in spacetime depending on where you are, so time has a geometry just like space has a geometry.(...)

 

That is almost correct. It does not depend on "where you are", but on your state & direction of motion.

And that does not mean that there are an infinity of dimensions of time. It means that, simply, time is like space.

Space is represented completely through 3 dimensions but contains an infinity of directions: direction is not to be confused with dimension.

In the 4d space-time continuum, time indeed can have an infinity of directions, but only one at a time (can we say that?).

When an object moves, it moves along a trajectory. It does not move along an infinity of trajectories. The same goes for time.

It look serious, but can someone who knows quantum theory can take a look and tell me if it make sense http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/quant-ph/pdf/0510/0510010v1.pdf

Thanks

This paper will interpret

quantum physics by using two extra dimensional time as quantum hidden variables. Ill show

that three dimensional time is a bridge to connect basics quantum physics, relativity and string

theory. Quantum potential in Bohms quantum hidden variable theory is derived from Einstein

Lagrangian in 6-dimensional time-space geometry. Statistical effect in the measurement of single

particle, non-local properties, de Broglie wave can be naturally derived from the natural properties of

three dimensional time. Berry phase, double-slit interference of single particle, uncertainty relation,

wave-packet collapse are discussed. The spin and g factor are derived from geometry of extra two

time dimensions. Electron can be expressed as time monopole. In the last part of this paper, Ill

discuss the relation between three dimensional time and unified theory.

Edited by Jacques

  • 4 weeks later...

Time is consistent in all spatial dimensions because IMO it is the 1st dimension. - Space is worthless without the potential to move along it.

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