Originally posted by King Castle
which is it are they the same or two different things?
are they simply interchangeable words or does science says different?
I once (and only once) asked myself why "dimension" is often used as a substitute for "reality" or "universe" (as in "parallel "
. In common usage (eg, mathematical), dimension often simply means "direction". However, one could say that a parallel reality is a reality where the course of historical events took a different direction (eg, Rome never fell).
In string theory, another "dimension" is a (compactified) spatial direction that is at right angles to the other spatial directions, but all in our one universe. In brane theory, another dimension can refer to a kind of hyperspace (the "bulk"
in which whole other universes (branes) "float."
Basically, until scientists discover/quantify/whatever these phenomena, operational definitions will remain lax.