So I was reading one of my astronomy books and it was just going through a brief synopsis on a proposed theory that our four dimensional spacetime was created due to two five dimensional membranes colliding. I had read about the "Brane Theory" awhile back, but this was the first time I read that the branes involved were each five dimensional.
My first thought was, "Why five?" Hmmm, sounds like wifi LOL. No, that wasn't it, of course, No, my thought immediately were the five dimensions are used to fit into M-theory, which is the collaboration of the previously separated five string theory models. M-theory requires 10 dimensions of space and one of time. Which the proposed number of dimensions in the branes implies that the branes do not have a time dimension, which is hard to imagine. But you know what John from the Beatles says, "It's easy if you try." Anyway, sure enough I read a bit online and the data I read said that the "M" in M-theory was believed to stand for membrane theory, but Witten has never confirmed why he called it M-theory.
This made me feel rather silly, realizing that the theory, M-theory, allowed for strings and membranes all this time, and I had to figure it out this way! Anyway, one more thought on why is was dubbed "M-theory". Witten's theory showed that all proposed versions of string theory were really the same one. The letter "M" has five points but they are all part of the same letter. That was my guess for a possible reasoning in the name. Anyway, I really need to try to sleep, now. Good night!
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