The Search For Hidden Dimensions by Brian Greene

[Lucidity]

".. We have found over the last hundred years that a very fruitful way of thinking about the universe is to allow for the possibility that left, right - back, forth - up, down - the three dimensions that we are all immersed within.. we have found it useful to imagine that there may be more than those three dimensions of space.

We have found, at least theoretically using mathematics, if you engage that possibility of more than three dimensions of space, certain problems in physics.. all the sudden.. admit to a solution!" -Brian Greene, Physicist

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o85O1...eature=related

[ajb1978]

This is M-Theory (membrane theory) that allows for 11 dimensions. Several of these dimensions only apply on a subatomic scale, and extend extremely short distances away from the main universe. By using an 11-dimensional model of physics, we're able to answer a wide variety of questions. Up to and including "what happened before the Big Bang?"

Of course, while we can mathematically work out these 11 dimensions, finding actual evidence as to their existence is substantially more difficult. Brian Greene has a lot of great easy-to-understand books on this topic, in particular "The Elegant Universe".