Re: OT: 4D

On Sun, Feb 27, 2005 at 03:07:56PM +0000, Simon Clarkstone wrote:
> Actually, this is part of a larger phenomenon, which is that forces
> weaker than inverse-square do not have stable orbits.  Both gravity
> and EM would be inverse-cube in 4D, so there would be no stable
> planetary orbits.  (Actually, EM as we know it wouldn't exist, due to
> lack of cross-products, but could be replaced by something even more
> bizarre.)
Note that there is at least one theory which postulates that the
difference in strength among the fundamental forces originates in
different dimensions of propagation within our universe: some
propagate only through the spacetime we perceive (3 space + 1 time
dimensions), but gravity propagates through higher spatial dimensions
too, which is, in this hypothesis, the reason it's so much weaker
than the others.

-Marcos