I recently started diving deeper into the aspects of superstring theory, but it is still very hard to grasp what the 10 space dimensions represent, other than the first visible 3 and time. Thanks!
In: Physics
The 10 dimensions in string theory represent 10 degrees of freedom. This is similar to our 4D(3 space and 1 time) world where you can move up and down, back and forward, and side to side as well a from 1 minute to the next. In string theory we need not only these 4 but 6 additional degrees of freedom to describe the way these fundamental strings can move. What are these additional dimensions? Other than being spatial and small(unlike our infinite 3D classical world) the details are only understood in the math which is way beyond a reddit level.
They are nothing more than additional space dimensions, like the 3 dimensions we are all familiar with. Think of a really long straw. From far away, it looks like any beings on that straw can only go back and forth along the straw in one dimension. But close up it’s possible to see that there is a second dimension *around* the straw. Superstring theory basically says the universe is actually like that, with 3 large dimensions we can freely move around in, and 7 additional curled up dimensions (+ time, obviously) that are just as real as the regular 3, just really really tiny.
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