A few years ago, I was taking a medication for an illness. One of the side effects was 'visual disturbances'. What I ended up seeing can be described thusly...Imagine you sweep your hand in front of you, left to right. A person sees that as one moment. But I was seeing the starting position of your hand and the finishing position simultaneously. As well there would be images of your hand in the moments in between, like time-lapse photography. It felt as though I could see in a different measure of time. I read on a few journals that this may be how we actually see things, but our brain has a different 'frame rate' (if you pardon the video analogy) and processes the visual information into what we know as normal.

Brian Greene makes the world a better place

I like Brian, he explains things very clearly

@hockley91

7 жыл бұрын

Brian Greene is just awesome. He's the closest to Carl Sagan that I've seen in a long time when it comes to explaining these concepts that just boggle the mind. I really don't like Neil DeGrasse Tyson that much. I don't know why. Just seems really arrogant to me.

This is why I'm going to do physics in college. No matter how hard I try, I cannot find a better use for the rest of my life than to probe those questions one step at a time. I get misty-eyed when I see videos like this. It's beautiful

I love you. This was fantastic, very simple to understand, incredibly clear. You are great. Life is good and keep being positive, you should know you made one person extremely happy. Live and let live.

Brings out more questions than answers, but hey that's science.

Excellent teacher. Bringing these issues to people in a way that the non-scientist can get some idea about them is a true art.

I've definitely seen/heard of the multiverse theory, but that brief animation showing out entire universe as a tiny branch of some larger fractal structure blew my mind. It could be that the entire "big bang" was as common an occurrence as a cell division, or a star formation, or an atom losing or gaining an electron.

This was really beautiful. Briane has hit the question of why we are here and what is the nature of nature. The universe is a like a circle, without beginning or end, with no original link to the chain of existence. You are the cosmos, looking back on "reality" and questioning the incomprehensible fact of being.

This is the best Brian Greene video I have seen to date.

I love videos like this. It breaks down quantum theories like string theory so a child can understand it. Well done. Well Done!

@GoodyBob cool, thanks for responding and the thoughtful discussion.

i love how excited he sounds

I WISH I could do a few math equations and understand physics this beautifully! This is logic, beauty, and science at its purest and most influential!

Very cool that the little character is knocking on the wall of the CERN collider at the end of the vid! VERY cool!

3:34 - 3:53 ohhhh i get it now! as a hobbiest i have always had a hard time trying to grasp the extra dimensions curling up on itself and being microscopic. but now i understand!

Wonderful video. Clear ideas and beautiful presentation. Thank you.

That was absolutely fantastic and the realisation is really immersive!

This is the nearest i have come to understanding a 4th (and even more) dimension. But the bit that i love the best (and i have often thought this) is that the BB is not necessarily the beginning nor the start of time but merely an event that invoked the Universe as we perceive it. I really hope the maths and then hopefully the Physics can come up with a viable explanation of Time Zero. If this can be done then the WLCs of this world will lose the last refuge for their God of Gaps. Great stuff.

Very interesting. Love how Brian explain things

Great job, Josh and all! Really, really nicely done!

I can't wait for his new NOVA special next month.

@JaySmith91 - Yes, “time” is the 4th dimension in Special Relativity and it can only be traversed in one direction - forward. You can experience "time travel" forward in time, but you can't experience it backwards in time.

I absolutely adore Brian Greene, regardless of the notion that he "dumbs down" the theories of quantum mechanics. He has inspired me to learn the mathematics involved so I would definitely say "Mission Accomplished!". Not all of us were fortunate enough to find it an early age, but some of us are intelligent enough to acquire it at a later "time". :D

Great video! Its good to get our minds thinking.

Absolutely loved this. Very exciting stuff.

Brian Greene has a brilliant way of explaining this subject. I just love this stuff.

I've been reading Greene's newest book "The hidden reality" and boy it is awesome. My personal theory is that every possible combination of matter, energy, life and consciousness that can exist within 10 dimensions... does. Greene mentions that there are roughly 10^500 possible fluxed Cabri Yau shapes which condense energy into universes. Our life is a very small part of that, all of the wrapped plank dimensions around us exist parallel to our own consciousness, as probabilities.

To get a more complete view of what is going on and why, read "To Believe or Not To Believe: The Social & Neurological Consequences of Belief Systems" by Rahasya Poe

wow! this is the first time I've actually understood the concept of extra dimensions =D

Beautiful animations!

The Elegant Universe, first popular account of physics I ever read. Got me interested in the stuff, Now I'm going into mathematical physics in university and I'm hooked on the stuff.

Thanks mr Greene,with you I sometimes visit The Elegant Universe.

Wow that fourth dimension thing is EXACTLY what I was thinking it would be a couple years ago. I didn't think anything of it. Not back forth up or down but just infinitely (kinda) shrank down. Wow. That was cool. I can't believe what I just heard

@CaptHandsome42 No, I was asking him what he meant when he said "true love and compassion".

Awesome video - very thought provoking :)

I remember actually learning relativity. Understanding that time isn't universal, and why, really furthered my understand of the universe, and made many of these "far fetched" theories seem much, much more plausible. Science is amazing.

Great ideas and theories here. THX

I know very little about physics, but this is super interesting!

I think that the space is a calculation done by consciousness in order to interpret the data that comes into it. It is a mathematical function defined by the (LCS) consciousness system. Scientists are expecting to see the edge of the Universe and they will never find it because is all virtual and it generates itself as long as you stare at it.

Entanglement can be explained Spherical standing wave structures in+/-out wave's have spherical symmetry. Magnetic field's always enfolding+/-unfolding curvature of spacetime at right-angle's forming quantized wave fronts or sinusoidal wave's The symmetry is broken where two quantized wave fronts meet creating a wobbly particle effect, as like charged wave-center's 'particle's' repel, becoming equally spaced along the curvature of spacetime, polarized particle's share the same moment's of time!

Good stuff. Looks like Elegant Universe part 2

Could these hidden dimensions be the opportunities and probabilities we have as the passage of time unfolds? This would make Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle the same uncertainty that the observer will have with any future event. Then we would than only need three dimensions and one variable of time. There is no understanding of time in modern physics or why we have a future and a past. Could this be why we have the paradoxes of QM?

Was just wondering if we will ever reach a "brick wall" in which we are not currently evolved enough or will ever be to comprehend things such as if there were things before the big bang? Could that be a possible inevitable problem we may face?

without a referance point, then motion moves in three demetions + 1, the one being the demetion x which accorading to present day theories is the singularty. I only use the word singularty to help u understand the demetion I am trying to convay. think of it as a demetion where nothing moves yet exsists movement is not relavent. all matter all energy is at the same point.

Amazing video.

enjoyed that quite a bit

Dude. That just blew my mind about 10 times.

amazing , i just finished watching.

This is awesome. I think that now the ultimate question is not about the number of dimensions our Universe has, but about the existence of a single theory that explains all of the Universe. It is like a fight between the monotheism and polytheism....in science. Mutatis mutandis. Maybe we need more that one "theory of everything". Maybe the Universe is just a result of coexisting contradictory realities or laws.

@TheRationalizer No, i fully agree. You're not alone with that notion.

Brian Greene is great. I love 'The Fabric of the Cosmos'.

dimension big topic but not hard to understand and i'll explain: mathmatics was the first thing that helped us to understand it but it also left us with alot of question like what is a dimension? the location, distance and time can describe it but we seem to always describe dimension as 1st 2nd 3rd even 11th we give them names so we have a starting point of understanding but to realize out of all the infinite dimension the numbers that we give them is just a name

Excellent video, more like this.

I find it so exciting to hear our generation's scientists talk about these mind blowing ideas. The truth is certainly stranger than fiction. How ever many dimensions there are, one thing is certain: The universe is awesome.

@OrderoftheWhiteHand No, the point was we just don't know yet, and he was filling us in on his musings.

@quzishen No problem friend, we ALL have lots to learn while here.

Great clip.

@JosephW99: It's all about the expectations. People, unfortunately, have high expectations that others will give them answers that are both comforting and human-centred.

Forward and backward in time might be the other directions in the dimension, in addition to back and fourth, up and down, and left and right. There are probably many more dimensions too.

@DamusNostril wow those words just brought a tear to my eye.. so much insight and backed with a well thought out philosophy behind it... and the sheer poetry at explaining aswell. you my friend must be a genius.. when did you discover that tho? and who did you test that on?

@quinnmcguee Yes! and how relieving it would be! I find so much comfort acknowledging the uncertainties that science explains. I am confident science will have answers for all the questions we have, though we may not live to witness the big ones. However, my trust in the scientific method gives me a reason to live a humble life as a citizen of the world.

haven't finished watching the whole thing but is it that only a few dimensions loop on themselves or do they all (including the 4 we live in)???

now everyone ? is what does the future (form of dimension) hold for us?? well i believe that since i am my own dimension and i can bring forth dimensions of my choosing then that the future is in my own hands..... . as a mass we live in a world of others ideas and creation a dimension that we have chosen to live or should i say comfortable for us... so which dimension do you hold within you? or what dimensions have you created for yourself?

when matter moves it constricts( meaning becomes smaller) as if it had to force its' way forward having to pass through a field of some sort, even in space. but when light travells through space even for 7 billion years(gamma rays) both high energy proton and low energy proton reach our satelites at the exact same time, which macks me think that light does not travel but is carried

Great stuff!

like a fish in a bowl we must stop thinking in only the way our envirerment allow us to. When i talk about the x dimesion do not think in directions. I have a very hard time explaning it because I have to use words which conger up other meanings with that said let me try again but this time try to comperhend by thiking about it rather then geting stuck on the words i use

@0609jean The particles that make up his hand never leave the dimensions we are aware of. It seems like you're thinking of these extra dimensions as a somewhere that is not here. Replace the word "dimension" with "direction" and you may get a better sense of it. Greene is referring to linear axes. But it is counter-intuitive because they are tiny and curl back upon themselves. So you are moving through/across them as you move through/across our familiar 3D+Time environment. Weird? Very.

The question I have is why would those other dimensions be so small, confined, curled up like that? Why aren't they wide open like the three we know? Or perhaps, why are our three dimensions NOT all curled up? Could it be that the Big Bang is what made them spread out? Perhaps that uncurling is what made time linear (as opposed to, say, circular, as it might be in a dimension curled in on itself...)? There's prolly no simple answer and I'd probably misconstrued a lot, but those are my queries.

My respect goes to this guys that try to bring science closer to the "normal people". Physics is a whole different universe to me and they try to explain it without all the weird math! Thanks Brian!

@twinkazz I think the 4th dimension is like time, or a progression of three dimensional objects, like a movie, in a way.

@6s1gm4, I see your point now. There is reason to believe string theory works by logically applying theories that have empirical support. I don't know enough physics yet, but I do know a good deal of math and philosophy. Once I learn more physics, I'll have an easier time understanding these theories. However, string theory seems to stress precise, integral laws that apply to probabilistic entities, like electrons. This and other apparent contradictions are confusing.

i f'ing love science, even with this being waaay over my understanding, just make me want to learn more and more about the universe.

@JohnHenryAlex Yeah, on second thought a shiny object attached to a long string would keep him busy for hours.

woah. that was amazing!

This is a truly worthwhile endeavour in life.

@islandbuoy4. If you think about it, it's hard to comprehend something that is only one dimension only. Know matter how you look at it, there are always at least two dimensions involved.

This is so terribly awesomely spectacular! What if human kind could exist, learn and expand enough throughout the universe to be its caretakers? It shares a dismal fate according to what physicists currently say, but maybe we could learn enough about it to help it survive? It's a pleasent thought that helps me sleep at night... lol.

@MisioneriesinChile How can you tell the difference between "spiritual experiences" and psychotic episodes?

is there a full version to this video? id love to see it

breathtaking!

@WBenny74 Why are theologians that believe in scriptures enjoining them to not think (literally in the bible) commenting on "BIG THINK" videos? I'm not limiting anyone's freedom of expression but it should be obvious that promulgating such contradictory views in a scientific sphere will start an argument.

go to 6:30 of the video, and listen: "ONE OF THE KEY THINGS THAT OFTEN LOST IS ... when you are testing a theory you do not need to test every single prediction of the theory .... you need to test enough of the predictions that you gain confidence that the theory is a good guide to the nature of reality and then if that theory tells you things about realms that you can't see like a realm before the big bang your actually learning about that realm even though you can't test it or see it."

awesome stuff, as always! :D

@AstronautDown : ) I'll check "Into the Universe" out!

@Clairvoyant23 You have to elaborate your statement.

@TheRationalizer Thanks man!

What if these tightly curled dimensions are what are responsible for the strange effects experienced when traveling at relitivistic speeds? ie: Compression along the travel vector. Time dialation Mass increase. Maybe the faster you move through space, the more time you spend in these hidden dimensions, thus changing your properties? =\

@Inmatinus Thats asking a question that has a presupposed answer. its like the classic 'whats the purpose of life?' question. Things do not need to have a personal reasons to exist... they can have a cause... (assuming the property of cause and effect is in operation), they can have a 'how'... but they do not need a WHY! ... you apply that yourself! Universes don't need reasons to exist just to make you happy! Not sure why my statement was classified as spam either?

Wow. A science video that my uneducated mind could comprehend. This deserves a thumb up.

Yay, another RDF video! W00t!

@Galvisius That game isn't done yet though is it? Last I checked it was still in construction.

@robopoet he's talking about extra spatial dimensions.

@AstronautDown "Communicators of science to the masses" most definately. Although sometimes I doubt, how much progress is really being made. String theory could all fall apart when a better understanding of the mathematics is known.

Inspiring video...

Really interesting. I think one of the coolest things about being alive is watching the borders of our knowledge of the world expand.

Reading "Flatland" by Abbott I find it difficult to think of added dimensions.

Thank you :)

@TheAmazingamerica does that answer the question ?

@ IstopAllNonsence. I'm no expert in this, but have taken a few physics classes. I'm pretty sure dimensions are a characteristics of space only.