Neil deGrasse Tyson: Could Time Have Multiple Dimensions?

A fan asks, "Just as string theory requires more spatial dimensions than we experience, couldn't it be possible to have more time dimensions than we experience?" Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks that would be cool, and explains how multiple dimensions of time might work to comic co-host Eugene Mirman in this StarTalk Radio Cosmic Query.

Catch up with StarTalk Radio around the web:

[Cork_UO]

I like that he admits it's possible and that he hasn't really given it much thought. Much better than some others out there claiming it's stupid to even entertain the idea.

[StarTalk]

New video: Could time have more than one dimension? Watch astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson discuss the possibility with comic co-host Eugene Mirman:
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Could Time Have Multiple Dimensions?

[rcuadro]

There has to be more than one... Have you experienced how long one minute last when you are on a treadmill?

[Roy_Tellason]

I've always thought that going sideways in time meant crossing from one level of the multiverse to another...

[veronicats]

I am amazed at the comments here.  People pulling things  out of their rear, and going on  about them.  What  generally  comes  out of your rear end?  Do you talk about it much, and if you did,   how would you be viewed by intelligent  beings?

[Eyedunno]

There is a Greg Egan story called "Before" with a gargantuan orbital particle accelerator that is attempting to replicate conditions "before" the Big Bang (thus the title, and the scare quotes are in the original as well).

It's a rescue mission story, and they discover that the experiment succeeded, and one of the results was that one bit of proto-spacetime coalesced into a spherical (sort of--it actually appears as a circle that changes size as it moves relative to the accelerator and regular spacetime) bubble universe with two space dimensions and two time dimensions. But what's discovered a little later is that its counterpart--four spatial dimensions, no time--was also created (and is a bit dangerous).

[alan]

Those interested in an alternative theory of physics that fully explores 3D time should check out Dewey Larson's reciprocal theory.

[KllswtchOvrDrv]

The very last sentence... "We aren't compelled to do so."

My god Neil...

I've been a die-hard fan for YEARS AND YEARS.

Your lack of scientific integrity, especially on the topic of UAP/UFO. You claim you know what you are talking about, regarding the nature of reality. I honestly feel that you, Neil, are spitting in the faces of people who had REAL experiences.

[MWproification]

Really interesting, I hope someone would answer this question with how multiple time dimensions work, would it possibly cause past and future to exist in one’s present time? Like up and down? Like they “walk” them?

[largehoman]

I've always wondered if we experience time on different scales. Say one persons hour feels like 50 minutes to them, but for another person it feels like an hour and a half and another its exactly an hour. Most of th time an hour feels like a half hour to me, but that's not what i mean, i mean it literally moving at a different pace from that persons perspective. Similar to the idea that maybe the blue i see is actually your red, and we both call it blue

[No-ne-is-Alone]

Would going east be like going through different realities? going north and south would be our dimentions past and future, west and east would be going through other dimentions?

[WASDxMerceless]

Not compelled, yet? Maybe one day, but hopefully not. Just getting my head around physical dimensions hurt :P

[GregWilson]

The mathematics involved in the General Theory of Relativity bears an uncanny resemblance to mathematics used to describe damped electromagnetic energy if our world is the Laplace Transform of a real-world we cannot see. That makes sense if you realized atoms are made of particles with predictable orbits that impose frequencies that change depending upon velocity and gravity.

[insanenetworks]

I agree with Neil that there would be no reason or compelling reason for time to have more dimensions. 

[darthmaul]

I thought about this what's stopping us crossing paths in between dimensions? whilst in sleep perhaps we could be travelling in a curvy line crossing through all the dimensions and universes. any ideas about this?

[pagup]

Think of it like imaginary time as imaginary numbers is to real numbers where imaginary time is on the y axis and real time is on the x axis, and you could even think about complex time where the time that you are stationed in is both real and imaginary.

[davidsirmons]

Time is a phenomenon of actual space. Without distance, it takes zero time to get anywhere. That's why it's called "space-time". Space-time is affected by gravity, becoming more distorted with more gravity. Space-time, therefore, can be gravitationally affected, and if we find a way to capitalize on the fact that gravity is perhaps like light, both a particle AND a wave, we'll likely gain the stars.

[made]

my head is gonna explode thinking about this one...

[tomatoso]

It would be interesting to have more dimensions of time but only if you have some degree of freedom moving in them. Time as a dimension, the one we know, is a one way street and it passes at a "relatively" ;) static rate. So I assume that if we where embedded on a universe with two time dimensions of the same kind we wouldn't notice it so much because we would be moving just the same on time but on some diagonal path. I think. Maybe there would be some differences on the paths if matter or speed affect them separately, but I'm no physicist..

[vassilisstergioudis]

Mr. Tyson, I know it's been 10 years and you'll probably never read this. But in case you do, time already has two dimensions. When staying still, we are moving in time at the speed of light. When moving at the speed of light in space, we are moving in a vertical direction of time. Let's say I decide to travel at the speed of light at 19:55 exactly. Everything will seem frozen to me from that point on. It's not frozen. It will always be 19:55. I'm experiencing a vertical time. You can call it 19:55-00:01. It's like a xy axis. I can live a life there, but when I stop moving at that speed, we'll all continue from 19:55 and on. For the other people, it would be unnoticeable. Did what I say hold any truth in it? Architect engineer here.