While the universe is known to have three dimensions, it seems another dimension has been found. As it is documented that such a dimension was proposed by physicists Oskar Klein and Theodor Kaluza in the 1920s. Let’s take a look at how they work.
Does the earth have a fifth dimension?
To answer that question, let’s first take a look at research that was conducted by Albert Einstein. Back in 1905, Einstein showed in his Special Theory of Relativity that space is intimately connected to time via the cosmic speed limit of light.
Carried in a publication like the BBC, it seems we live in a Universe with four dimensions of space-time. We all know that, however, we tend to think of the Universe in three dimensions of space (north-south, east-west, up-down) and one dimension of time (past-future).
In that case, a fifth dimension would be an extra dimension of space. This is said to have been proposed independently by two physicists, Klein and Kaluza.
According to the report, the duo was inspired by Einstein’s theory of gravity, which showed that mass warped four-dimensional space-time.
“Since we’re unable to perceive these four dimensions, we attribute motion in the presence of a massive body, such as a planet, not to this curvature but to a ‘force’ of gravity,” reports the British publication.
“Could the other force known at the time (the electromagnetic force) be explained by the curvature of an extra dimension of space? Kaluza and Klein found it could.
“When a particle such as an electron travelled through space, invisible to us, it would be going round and round the fifth dimension, like a hamster in a wheel.”
While Kaluza and Klein are both credited for bringing a different discovery or a layer based on this topic, their five-dimensional theory was dealt a serious blow by the discovery of two more fundamental forces that operated in the realm of the atomic nucleus: the strong and weak forces.
The report adds that the idea that extra dimensions explain forces was revived half a century later by proponents of ‘string theory’, which views the fundamental building blocks of the Universe not as particles, but as tiny ‘strings’ of mass energy.
Following this theory, string theory formulated the idea that our Universe might be a three-dimensional island, or ‘brane’, thus floating in 10-dimensional space-time.
“This raised the intriguing possibility of explaining why gravity is so extraordinarily weak compared with the other three fundamental forces,” added the BBC.
“There is a way to have a bigger fifth dimension, which is curved in such a way that we don’t see it, and this was suggested by the physicists Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum in 1999.”
Resulting from research in 2021 by a team of physicists from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, it’s said or suggested that the gravity of hitherto unknown particles propagating in a hidden fifth dimension could manifest itself in our four-dimensional Universe as the extra gravity we currently attribute to dark matter.
Is the fifth dimension unobservable?
Wikihow published that the fifth dimension is a conceptual, unobservable micro dimension of space. It’s considered a spatial dimension, like the 3D length, height, and depth we’re familiar with.
In simple theory, a fifth dimension is a plane of spacetime that’s curved in on itself so tightly, that the entire dimension is a loop smaller than an atom.
The report further adds the fifth dimension was conceived to mathematically unify gravity and electromagnetism into a single force,” reads a part from Wikihow.
“When Einstein published his theories of general relativity and gravity in 1915, he showed that the force of gravity is the result of the spatial dimensions (length, height, and depth) being “curved” by massive objects, like Earth or the sun.”