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Testing Parallel universes

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(+7)
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Requires two wormholes and two pieces of string which are exactly the same length, and some assistants.

At a pre-arranged time the two wormholes, placed 1000km apart, are opened into the same parallel universe, the assistant goes through and measures the amount of string sticking out of their side of the wormhole, and chalks a red mark where the end of the string was.

Experiment complete, assistants returns, the measurements are compared and finally we will know if the universes are parallel, or not.

not_morrison_rm, May 07 2013

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       I don't understand how this could possibly work. Won't the assistants just collide with their evil goatee-sporting doppelgangers who are on their way to make a blue chalk mark in our universe?
ytk, May 07 2013
  

       That's what I'm counting on. After a certain amount of "No, no, after you, I insist" the distance between the red and blue chalk marks acts as a secondary measure, confirming the string measurements.   

       After enough universes are measured, the white, orange, taupe, beige, blue and red and (inexplicably) Hello Kitty pink crayon marks will tend to average out the errors.
not_morrison_rm, May 07 2013
  

       You need to measure across both universes on opposing diagonals. If the diagonal measurements are the same, then the two universes are parallel.
zen_tom, May 07 2013
  

       but... but... what if you go through, find there *is* another universe there, but that it's *not* parallel?   

       Michio Kaku's head explodes on live TV while Morgan Freeman narrates; Stephen Hawking tries to explain a point but is helpless while his computer goes into an endless loop of re-boots; Preskill and Thorne hack into the Federal Reserve and start making leveraged bets based on criteria mere post-docs would never understand; the scientific papers underpinning the work of the LHC all collapse, leaving a tunnel of rubble and magnets; Einstein is found to have mistaken matter for doesn't matter in the equivalence to energy; and Susskind is called upon for emergency plumbing duties in the theoretical physics departments of a large percentage of the world's major universities.   

       You thought accidentally creating a black hole was risky.
lurch, May 07 2013
  

       'Parallel Realities' is something of a misnomer anyhow, or perhaps merely a broad generality, since realities routinely merge, diverge, edge nearer or further, and carom off of one another on their hellbent race toward infinity.
Alterother, May 07 2013
  

       tsk, who's to say they're "parallel", ie: discrete, rather than continuous along another dimension(s). (Okay, that's almost what Ao said, but not quite)
FlyingToaster, May 07 2013
  

       //You need to measure across both universes on opposing diagonals.   

       Ahh, that's the easy bit, just use two worms holes, one at each opp diag corner, connect with the bit of string.   

       diagonal = infinity - length of string.
not_morrison_rm, May 07 2013
  

       Here's a test bun because I would like to see you try. [+]
xandram, May 08 2013
  

       Ha, you're not catching me out again like that..last time, it was "just hold these two wires" and the next thing I know - due to some piddling firmware glitch with the wormhole - I'd become my own great-aunt again.   

       Mind you, the extra string came in handy though.
not_morrison_rm, May 08 2013
  

       "The first thing to realize about parallel universes... is that they are not parallel. It is also important to realize that they are not, strictly speaking, universes either, but it is easiest if you don't try to realize it until a little later, after you've realized that everything you've realized up to that moment is not true."   

       Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless
spidermother, May 10 2013
  

       Wouldn't they get all tangled up with numerous strings of String Theory?
xenzag, May 10 2013
  

       Ah, but you see, the strings aren't really strings...
Alterother, May 10 2013
  

       Ah, you're just stringing him along
not_morrison_rm, May 13 2013
  

       If they find a perpendicular universe instead, I'll open up a convenience store next to the wormhole.   

       The most amazing and truest form of "convenience store".   

       Because whatever your need is in this universe, dear buyer, it is bound to be met coincidentally by what is just about to be discarded by your anti-other over the wormhole fence.
not_only_but_also, May 13 2013
  

       This is, without parallel, a brilliant idea...
Ling, May 13 2013
  


 

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