A Fourth Dimension as a Reason for Quantum Physics

[Jay]

If my limited knowledge of this field is correct, then the majority of the field is based on predicting the chance of a certain subatomic particle at one point in time.

Maybe the reason it is hard to find the path of these particles is because they constantly slip in an out of 3d. Maybe they are following some strange orbit that requires them to travel in a mixture of four perpendicular directions.

Think about it. Imagine Bob playing tetherball, except the ball had to keep travelling through Fred's world. Fred would see a circle randomly appearing and disappearing in his world, and he wouldn't be able to do anything but guess at where it appeared next.

If this is true in fact, then in the fourth dimension, quantum physics may not even be needed to explain something. But those poor bionians. It may apply to much larger things, and they probably can predict a lot less about their world.

[Jay]

I also had another thought.

What if the circular protons, neutrons and electrons of Fred's world were just slices of their 3d counterparts, and his existence was bound to our space.

What if our subatomic particals are just 3d slices of subatomic glomes, and our existence is bound to Emily's world?

[alkaline]

The math probably doesn't allow your theory of 4 perpendicular motions to be possible for the interactions that result in our space. Four dimensional orbits are unstable - they don't have any stable solutions. A four dimensional planet would either spiral into its sun or fly off into space.

Modern string-based physics is based on the idea that our matter has thickness in higher dimensions (but very compact ones). They use these compact higher dimensions to unify forces together.

[Geosphere]

A four dimensional planet would either spiral into its sun or fly off into space.

Or both simultaneously. Which would tear the planet to bits, assuming it was under the physical laws of realmspace at the time.

[alkaline]

that would happen only if the difference of gravity from the sun between one side of the planet and the other side were greater than the forces holding it together. If not, it wouldn't be torn apart. But then again, gravity within the planet itself is holding it together, so if it's rotating fast enough and its outer surface is far away enough from the center, it would discard its outer matter.

[Geosphere]

Depends how the 4d planet got here.

If we decided to take a human and make him 2d, well, the results wouldn't be real pretty.

Take a 4d planet, bring it here, well, the results wouldn't be real pretty.

[alkaline]

I am assuming "spontaneous creation", after which the tetronian rules of physics take over. Kind of like the big bang, except that instead of starting at a point, you start with a fully constructed universe.

what do you mean by "take a human and make him 2d"? Remove a slice from him, put the slice in planespace, and throw away the rest?

[Geosphere]

I was actually thinking more like put him in a cider press.

[alkaline]

lol that wouldn't exactly be "making" him 2d - that would be squishing him :-P the process doesn't give any useful results, so we can't exactly use it.

[Geosphere]

I did say it wasn't pretty.

Never said it was practical. Or legal.

[RQ]

Well we have to use Occam's razor for higher dimensions, since we can't predict what we can't observe