“Vibrating strings in 10 dimensions is just a weird fact… An explanation of that weird fact would tell you why there are 10 dimensions in the first place.”

as quoted by K.C. Cole, "A Theory of Everything" New York Times Magazine (1987) Oct.18

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Vibrating strings in 10 dimensions is just a weird fact… An explanation of that weird fact would tell you why there are…" by Edward Witten?
Edward Witten photo
Edward Witten 20
American theoretical physicist 1951

Related quotes

Charles Proteus Steinmetz photo
Stephen Hawking photo
Edwin Abbott Abbott photo

“It is reported so. But men are divided in opinion as to the facts. And even granting the facts, they explain them in different ways. And in any case, however great may be the number of different explanations, no one has adopted or suggested the theory of a Fourth Dimension.”

Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 19. How, Though the Sphere Showed Me Other Mysteries of Spaceland, I Still Desired More; and What Came of It
Context: p>O, my Lord, my Lord, behold, I cast myself in faith upon conjecture, not knowing the facts; and I appeal to your Lordship to confirm or deny my logical anticipations. If I am wrong, I yield, and will no longer demand a fourth Dimension; but, if I am right, my Lord will listen to reason.I ask therefore, is it, or is it not, the fact, that ere now your countrymen also have witnessed the descent of Beings of a higher order than their own, entering closed rooms, even as your Lordship entered mine, without the opening of doors or windows, and appearing and vanishing at will? On the reply to this question I am ready to stake everything. Deny it, and I am henceforth silent. Only vouchsafe an answer.SPHERE. (AFTER A PAUSE). It is reported so. But men are divided in opinion as to the facts. And even granting the facts, they explain them in different ways. And in any case, however great may be the number of different explanations, no one has adopted or suggested the theory of a Fourth Dimension.Therefore, pray have done with this trifling, and let us return to business.</p

Edwin Abbott Abbott photo

“The very fact that a Line is visible implies that it possesses yet another Dimension.”

Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 16. How the Stranger Vainly Endeavoured to Reveal to Me in Words the Mysteries of Spaceland

Alan Watts photo
Kamila Shamsie photo

“You have this ability to find beauty in weird places.”

Kamila Shamsie (1973) Pakistani writer

Source: Kartography

David Gross photo
Richard Dawkins photo

“The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

"From tail to tale on the path of pilgrims in life" http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=374772005, The Scotsman ()

Dr. Seuss photo
Kurien Kunnumpuram photo

Related topics