What is a Wormhole?

The hole left in the earth after the worm had dug it... Duh! :)

Here is a great explanation of Wormholes (Wormholes at Wikipedia).

Whether wormholes exist, or are merely mathematical oddities remains to be seen. However, it should be noted that blackholes were also considered mathematical oddities at first.

Here at CR4 we have a user named Jorrie that is very knowledgable regarding General Relativity (of which wormholes are solutions). I would be interested on his take.

yeah, i'm curious too... and whats the deal with other dimensions?

what other dimensions??

Think of an apple. If you were a worm, and you wanted to get from one side to the other, you could choose to go completely around it on the exterior. A shorter distance however, would be to bore a hole through the middle. This same analogy can be made with a mountain, and more commonly and scientifically made in an enourmous amount of free space. For example, if our entire universe was encompassed as a huge round ball. A wormhole would allow us to pass through it, in lieu of having to go completely around it, thus cutting out a lot of time.

Thanks for your enlightening response, but do you really wanna say that the universe is a huge round ball kinda thing, i.e., it is spherical in shape?!!

If it is a ball, then it must be having a boundary and if there's a definite boundary to it, then there must be something beyond it and if there's something definite beyond the known sphere of universe, then what is it???

I believe that you must be knowing an answer for this. So please reply!!

Elika,

When we speak of the universe having a shape it must be in more than

the three real dimensions we can perceive.

The 'boundarys` are not something we can experience.

Think of ant, looking for the end of a balloon upon which it creeps.

I guess I was trying to express wormhole in a very simple sense, so I did label our universe as a large round ball. I only gave it a boundary as an anology, mental picture if you will. What's beyond our universe - other universes, as far as we know infinite space. I don't know if anyone knows exactly the defined boundaries of ours or any other. The definition of a wormhole can be simply described without getting complicated. The fact is that they are a very complex phenomena, and their existance, locations, parameters, starting points, lengths, ending points, transition elements and other characteristics are a much more complex field of science.

thanks 4 d reply.

can u plz specify d field of science u r possibly talking of...

and what is universe without complications!!!

From Wikipedia

analogy to a wormhole in a curved 2D space (copied from Wikipedia.

In physics, a wormhole is a hypothetical topological feature of spacetime that is essentially a "shortcut" through space and time. A wormhole has at least two mouths which are connected to a single throat. If the wormhole is traversable, matter can 'travel' from one mouth to the other by passing through the throat. While there is no observational evidence for wormholes, spacetimes containing wormholes are known to be valid solutions in general relativity.

Sciences: General Relativity (quantum mechanics) & Physics.

There are no universes without complications. How many planets are there in our own universe? How many universes are there? The list of questions surrounding them are infinite. Wouldn't you agree.

I just hope the person that originated this question now has a general idea of "What is a Wormhole?".

thanks a lot sir

i must say that i am grateful to u!!

and i do agree wid u and so wud u, wen i say that "knowledge is like cold water, which may relieve the throat but not quench its thirst!"

and sir, r u by any chance an astronomer or the like? well, whatever u may be, but as for me, u r a gr8 resource 4 knowledge!!

thanks again...

Thank you much for the kind words. My background is civil engineering & engineering management. I'm kind of a liason manager who helps managers, scientists and engineers in their transition from a paper and laboratory environment, into the real world. The real world environment is the proving ground for all the hours spent on the drawing board in planning and developing a given product. The nice part of my job is maintaining the real world test environment (the playground). My gratification comes from seeing their success.