We review the current status of dimensions, as the result of a long and controversial history that includes input from philosophy and physics. Our conclusion is that they are subjective but essential concepts which provide a kind of bookkeeping device, their number increasing as required by advances in physics. The world almost certainly has more than the four dimensions of space and time, but the introduction of the fifth and higher dimensions requires a careful approach wherein known results are embedded and new ones are couched in the most productive manner.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barrow, J.D., 1981. Quart. J. Roy. Astron. Soc. 22, 388.
Barrow, J.D., Tipler, F.J., 1986. The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. Oxford University Press, New York.
Campbell, J.E., 1926. A Course of Differential Geometry. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Eddington, A.S., 1935. New Pathways in Science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Eddington, A.S., 1939. The Philosophy of Science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Green, M.B., Schwarz, J.H., Witten, E., 1987. Superstring Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Gubser, S.S., Lykken, J.D., 2004. Strings, Branes and Extra Dimensions. World Scientific, Singapore.
Halpern, P., 2004. The Great Beyond: Higher Dimensions, Parallel Universes, and the Extraordinary Search for a Theory of Everything. Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey.
Kilmister, C.W., 1994. Eddington’s Search for a Fundamental Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
McCrea, W.H., Rees, M.J. (eds.), 1983. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. (London) A 310, 209.
Petley, B.W., 1985. The Fundamental Constants and the Frontier of Measurement. Hilger, Bristol. Price, K., French, S. (eds.), 2004. Arthur Stanley Eddington: Interdisiplinary Perspectives. Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (10-11 March), Cambridge.
Seahra, S.S., Wesson, P.S., 2003. Class Quant. Grav. 20, 1321.
Szabo, R.J., 2004. An Introduction to String Theory and D-Brane Dynamics. World Scientific, Singapore.
Wesson, P.S., 1978. Cosmology and Geophysics. Hilger/Oxford University Press, New York.
Wesson, P.S., 1992. Space Science Reviews, 59, 365.
Wesson, P.S., 1999. Space, Time, Matter. World Scientific, Singapore.
Wesson, P.S., 2006. Five-Dimensional Physics. World Scientific, Singapore.
West, P., 1986. Introduction to Supersymmetry and Supergravity. World Scientific, Singapore.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wesson, P.S. (2007). The Meaning of Dimensions. In: Petkov, V. (eds) Relativity and the Dimensionality of the World. Fundamental Theories of Physics, vol 153. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6318-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6318-3_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6317-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6318-3
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)