This is from Wikipedia’s explanation of Spacetime:
“The term spacetime has taken on a generalized meaning with the advent of higher-dimensional theories. How many dimensions are needed to describe the universe is still an open question. Speculative theories such as string theory predict 10 or 26 dimensions (with M-theory predicting 11 dimensions; 10 spatial and 1 temporal), but the existence of more than four dimensions would only appear to make a difference at the subatomic level.”
Does anyone else object to “make a difference” here? Maybe I don’t understand the science enough, but I’m pretty sure what happens at the subatomic level has some kind of significant effect at the super-atomic level, i.e., in the four-dimensions of spacetime that we experience.
But if I’m right, I’m not sure how to revise that sentence. Because the intent of the sentence is also true: while events at the subatomic level do make a difference, they don’t seem to make a difference when compared to the death of someone’s mother or even to the trade-status of someone’s favorite baseball player. The message conveyed by that sentence seems true to me. It just doesn’t seem true enough to communicate in a science article.
And while Wikipedia may hardly seem the place for science, it is an experiment in truth-seeking.
So my question to you is: how would you rewrite that sentence to increase its truth without, at the same time, decreasing its truth?
One Comment
it’s only a theory… - and for all we know… - the physicists and scientists could be involved in a pi type of problem and they just don’t know it yet… - and until we send a probe out into space at a faster than light speed speed to try and reach the farthest point of the universe… - we can only speculate… - and even if we do… - the probe has to be a mathematician and a physicist and a scientist and a camera and a sensory pod rolled up in one to even try and calculate the universe’s dimensions… - and that doesn’t even take into consideration the probability of a collision… - so we’re basically stuck here on earth with a piece of scrap paper and a pencil to try and describe something that we’ll never experience ever…
we could also build a telescope… - but… - then again… - it’s not enough to prove anything… - and these differences they speak of on a subatomic level… - unless we find a way to shrink ourselves… - we’ll never truly understand the difference that it makes or what it actually is beyond a microscope and a few brainstorming geniuses…
i don’t even know if we know what lies behind the sun yet… - do we? - even the constellations of the stars… - aren’t there other constellations that we can never see because of the sun? - everything that scientists and physicists study is hindered by the human brain… - they catalog discoveries with impossible names and file it away in a database of “truth”… - all of these discoveries were floating around somewhere long before the first laboratory was built and given their names by humans…
all and all… - there are things in this universe that shouldn’t be tampered with… - especially by humans…
but what do i know? - i still draw big veiny dicks in magazines…