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string theory? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Mono!
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insert-username
Wandering the Lacuna
String theory is an expansion on the module Quanta to Quarks. It's not actually in the Physics syllabus.
String theory is an alternative to the current "Standard Model" of particle physics. The Standard Model says that zero-dimensional points - tiny particles called quarks, leptons, and gluons - are the building blocks of all matter. String theory basically states that the fundamental constituents of matter are one dimensional extended objects, i.e. strings. These strings are believed to be of Planck length (about 10-35m) and oscillate at resonant frequencies in 11 or so dimensions. Yes, that's 11 dimensions, 7 more than we can ever comprehend.
The theory arose because of various problems with the current Standard Model. The Standard Model says nothing about gravity, for example - nothing in the Model explains why apples fall off trees. The Standard Model also can't explain mass - in the Model a particle called the "Higg's Boson" has been inserted to account for mass. We haven't actually found this particle yet, but particle physicists are searching away for it. So basically, the Standard Model is as good as we've got, but it's pretty ugly and has a lot of holes. As with anything that's ugly and holey, people have been searching for better solutions, and string theory is one of those. In fact, string theory is regarded as a possible theory of everything; a theory that can explain all of the mysterious forces at work in our world - gravity, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, everything. The number of dimensions that the strings vibrate in (11, remember?) allows particle physicists to pull together quantum laws (the world of the very small), gravitational laws (the world of anything larger than very small), and relativity (the very very fast) into one comparatively neat package. Well, much neater than the Standard Model is at the moment, anyway.
However, string theory is still in its very early infancy. It's extraordinarily hard to see anything that's 10-35m long, let alone some strings that size. The theory requires much, much more development before it can be accepted or falsified - like a lot of particle physics, it's very, very theorectical at this point. Who knows what it'll turn out to be in the future....
Hope that helped,
I_F
String theory is an alternative to the current "Standard Model" of particle physics. The Standard Model says that zero-dimensional points - tiny particles called quarks, leptons, and gluons - are the building blocks of all matter. String theory basically states that the fundamental constituents of matter are one dimensional extended objects, i.e. strings. These strings are believed to be of Planck length (about 10-35m) and oscillate at resonant frequencies in 11 or so dimensions. Yes, that's 11 dimensions, 7 more than we can ever comprehend.
The theory arose because of various problems with the current Standard Model. The Standard Model says nothing about gravity, for example - nothing in the Model explains why apples fall off trees. The Standard Model also can't explain mass - in the Model a particle called the "Higg's Boson" has been inserted to account for mass. We haven't actually found this particle yet, but particle physicists are searching away for it. So basically, the Standard Model is as good as we've got, but it's pretty ugly and has a lot of holes. As with anything that's ugly and holey, people have been searching for better solutions, and string theory is one of those. In fact, string theory is regarded as a possible theory of everything; a theory that can explain all of the mysterious forces at work in our world - gravity, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, everything. The number of dimensions that the strings vibrate in (11, remember?) allows particle physicists to pull together quantum laws (the world of the very small), gravitational laws (the world of anything larger than very small), and relativity (the very very fast) into one comparatively neat package. Well, much neater than the Standard Model is at the moment, anyway.
However, string theory is still in its very early infancy. It's extraordinarily hard to see anything that's 10-35m long, let alone some strings that size. The theory requires much, much more development before it can be accepted or falsified - like a lot of particle physics, it's very, very theorectical at this point. Who knows what it'll turn out to be in the future....
Hope that helped,
I_F
String theory had alot of problems when equally valid conflicting modifications arose, for example one modification stated that there were 26 spacial dimensions and that there is a particle called a tachyon which has imaginary mass. This was apparently solved with an extention known as M theory which somehow showed that they all really were the same thing.
There is a great 3 hour documentary you can watch on string theory: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html.
EDIT: and to answer your question, no I don't understand a thing about it!
There is a great 3 hour documentary you can watch on string theory: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html.
EDIT: and to answer your question, no I don't understand a thing about it!
Last edited:
Jono_2007
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How do you get the sound to play!
On quicktime setting. The sound works on real player, but the video is much more dodgy!
On quicktime setting. The sound works on real player, but the video is much more dodgy!
Last edited:
insert-username
Wandering the Lacuna
You may need to update your version of Quicktime or Realplayer - though I don't think that's the case since the videos are dated 2003. However, you never know. Like Riviet said, make sure your speakers are on, plugged in, and that your volume isn't muted.
I_F
I_F
There is no way that you can 'understand' string theory without knowing the maths behind it. There is a pretty general description on Wikipedia, however if you are really interested buy a intro to String Theory book from Amazon.
ameh
dirty trick
I recommend B. Greene's ''The Elegant Universe''
M-turkey
Zoom Zoom
You need a certain understanding of basic quantum physics to be able to understand Elegant Universe thou.ameh said:
insert-username touched on an important point. String Theory and M-theory are almost philosophical. Its unable to be tested.
If you read about the history of a unified field theory, you understand why String Theory is important
acullen
Povo postgrad
With regards to the Higg's boson, a few unaccounted for events observed whilst using the Large Electron Positron Collider at CERN may be noted as perhaps being caused by Higg's bosons. The Large Hadron Collider is currently under construction at CERN (I think it should be complete some time next year); it's said it should be able to prove/disprove the existance of the Higg's boson.
M-turkey
Zoom Zoom
On an interesting note. You can use you computer to help prepare information (improve the design) for the Large Hadron Collider being built at CERN through distributed computing.
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
Goto the LHC@Home link if your interested
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
Goto the LHC@Home link if your interested