This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and all topics of conversation are welcome. Today's suggested topic is open to whatever is on your mind. Or, to start the conversation consider a picture suggestive of a Calabi-Yau space.
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From Wikipedia: This image of the en:Calabi–Yau manifold appeared on the cover of the November 2007 issue of en:Scientific American.
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What is for dinner? How are you doing? What is on your mind. If you are new to Street Prophets please introduce yourself beyond the fold in a comment. This is an Open Thread and all topics of conversation are welcome.
I think the graphic above is quite pretty, and that is the only point of posting it. For the science geeks this is not an article about the science or math that generated the graphic. This is only a brief article talking about what this represents.
The theory behind the graphic suggests if we were able to see the smallest space possible, about 636.30×10−36 inches, we would find such a space. (or a space similar to this one) The space is not flat like the graphic, but is a compacted space with 6 extra dimensions. Think of a compacted space like a crumpled and compacted wad of paper. Only this wad of paper has a very well defined shape. As suggested by the graphic above.
This hidden space is called a Calabi-Yau space. Clearly, the above graphic is only a suggestion of what this 6 dimensional thing is. I think this is an interesting idea and a pretty picture. What do you think?
JON