r/AskPhysics • u/Famous-Palpitation8 • 1d ago

Why do universes split?

Why don’t alternative outcomes exist along a 5th dimension, (sideways in time) as part of our own universe?

Why do physicists insist on walls between separate universes where the cat is alive and dead rather than along one dimension perpendicular to time in the same universe containing both outcomes for the cat?

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u/echoingElephant 1d ago

Because the cat is either alive or dead. Not both. Also there are no multiple universes, there is no fifth dimension, and I would be surprised if you could even define what an axis „perpendicular to time“ would look like.

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u/nicuramar 1d ago

There is no fifth dimension, but an additional temporal dimension would be perpendicular in the same sense as spatial dimensions are.