4 ms·
No, what you’re saying is correct. If the inverse square law was obeyed perfectly, space would be restricted to 3-spatial dimensions. The extra spatial dimensi
by JimBlackwood 6y ago
No, what you’re saying is correct. If the inverse square law was obeyed perfectly, space would be restricted to 3-spatial dimensions.
The extra spatial dimensions are usually theorized to be extremely compact so the effects of a higher power law (the inverse square law can be generalised to 1/r^(n-1) with n as your amount of dimensions.) can be neglected.
Of course, to prove it you’d have to at some point measure these effects, and there is some evidence that the inverse square law breaks down. (https://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ph/0307284.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ph/0307284.pdf)
- jscipione 6y agoI would think that over cosmological distances even if the effect of extra dimensions on the propagation of gravity was tiny, Less than half a human hair, the net effect would be measurable especially if there are not just 1 but 8 extra curled dimensions as M-theory predicts. Well thanks for confirming that what I was thinking was an accurate criticism and I hope that physicists can devise an experiment to prove or disprove the extra dimensions some day soon.