Post by JeRegretRiens on Jan 9, 2009 21:39:07 GMT -5
Whee, it's 2am and Katie can't sleep. So here goes my notes/summary for The Elegant Universe, Hour 2: String's the Thing, as well as a short theory of my own at the end.
Our understanding of the universe is based on two seperate and contradictory theories: General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
To describe things on the large scale, such as stars and galaxies, we use Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. It describes space and time as a surface that heavy objects can warp, creating the phenomenon we percieve as gravity.
On small scales, we use Quantum Mechanics, which is completely opposed to the Theory of Relativity. Quantum Mechanics dictates that the fabric of space-time is bumpy and chaotic, that space and time break down at this level. Nothing is definite at the subatomic level, things can only be expressed in terms of probability.
But one master equation should resolve both. Einstein spent the last 30 years of his life researching that equation.
For centuries, scientists have seen matter as being built of tiny balls, or points, and studied these particles by smashing them together and studying the collisions. Many, many particles were discovered this way. Scientists also believed that forces could be described as particles--as a messenger particle, or photon. The exchange of photons produces magnetic attraction, which we feel as force. Experiments confirmed this for electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. At high temperatures, electromagnetic particles and weak nuclear particles are indistinguishable; and scientists believe that at the birth of the universe, strong nuclear particles were the same as well. But this theory does not include gravity.
In 1968, Gabriele Veneziano was looking into the Strong Nuclear Force, and discovered a 200 year old equation written by Leonhard Euler. Euler's equation described the Strong Force. Leonard Susskind investigated this equation, but the scientific community rejected his research.
String theory postulates that inside these points or particles is a tiny vibrating strand of energy, called a string--100 billion billion times smaller than an atom. But it also produced many impossibilities, including ten or eleven dimensions, and tachyon particles, which supposedly travel faster than light. Because of these impossibilities, very few people pursued String Theory. But in 1973, John Schwarz made a discovery. One particular impossibility was the existence of a massless particle never seen in nature. He realized that this particle was actually the particle for gravity--a graviton. String theory had produced a massless particle that transmitted gravity. But again the scientific community rejected it.
Michael Green joined Schwarz to pursue String Theory, but it wasn't until 1984 that they solved the final anomalies. This time, the scientific community took notice. String Theory was christened the Theory of Everything.
Despite its promising outlook, String Theory did still have a few kinks in it. It relied on the existence of more dimensions than the four dimensions of common experience (left-right, forward-back, up-down, and time). But the idea of other dimensions besides those four is nearly 100 years old.
Theodore Kaluza suggested a fifth dimension to Albert Einstein in 1919. If gravity was ripples in space-time, Kaluza said electromagnetism was ripples in a hidden dimension that humans could not see. Oskar Klein suggested this hidden dimension was clockwise-counterclockwise, and other small, curly dimensions.
These hidden dimensions influence the way the strings vibrate; different frequencies. And the differing frequencies give particles their unique properties. They also control the vibrations that give the universe its 20 governing constants.
Now, my theory at this point...going back to the definition of String Theory, that =everything= is made up of tiny, vibrating strings of energy... This energy would be the Force. And the ability to use such energy directly would be the ability to alter the Strings and their vibrations directly. Which, considering that all we -are- is these strings vibrating at a certain frequency, is not all that improbable. For example, when I play my violin, if I play two strings at once, if I have tuned it properly, it creates -another- vibration, simply by the harmony of the two original vibrations. So if we can get ourselves in -harmony- with a different frequency of vibration...we can begin to affect it.
I'm not sure where I'm going with that yet, but that's what I have so far.
Our understanding of the universe is based on two seperate and contradictory theories: General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
To describe things on the large scale, such as stars and galaxies, we use Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. It describes space and time as a surface that heavy objects can warp, creating the phenomenon we percieve as gravity.
On small scales, we use Quantum Mechanics, which is completely opposed to the Theory of Relativity. Quantum Mechanics dictates that the fabric of space-time is bumpy and chaotic, that space and time break down at this level. Nothing is definite at the subatomic level, things can only be expressed in terms of probability.
But one master equation should resolve both. Einstein spent the last 30 years of his life researching that equation.
For centuries, scientists have seen matter as being built of tiny balls, or points, and studied these particles by smashing them together and studying the collisions. Many, many particles were discovered this way. Scientists also believed that forces could be described as particles--as a messenger particle, or photon. The exchange of photons produces magnetic attraction, which we feel as force. Experiments confirmed this for electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. At high temperatures, electromagnetic particles and weak nuclear particles are indistinguishable; and scientists believe that at the birth of the universe, strong nuclear particles were the same as well. But this theory does not include gravity.
In 1968, Gabriele Veneziano was looking into the Strong Nuclear Force, and discovered a 200 year old equation written by Leonhard Euler. Euler's equation described the Strong Force. Leonard Susskind investigated this equation, but the scientific community rejected his research.
String theory postulates that inside these points or particles is a tiny vibrating strand of energy, called a string--100 billion billion times smaller than an atom. But it also produced many impossibilities, including ten or eleven dimensions, and tachyon particles, which supposedly travel faster than light. Because of these impossibilities, very few people pursued String Theory. But in 1973, John Schwarz made a discovery. One particular impossibility was the existence of a massless particle never seen in nature. He realized that this particle was actually the particle for gravity--a graviton. String theory had produced a massless particle that transmitted gravity. But again the scientific community rejected it.
Michael Green joined Schwarz to pursue String Theory, but it wasn't until 1984 that they solved the final anomalies. This time, the scientific community took notice. String Theory was christened the Theory of Everything.
Despite its promising outlook, String Theory did still have a few kinks in it. It relied on the existence of more dimensions than the four dimensions of common experience (left-right, forward-back, up-down, and time). But the idea of other dimensions besides those four is nearly 100 years old.
Theodore Kaluza suggested a fifth dimension to Albert Einstein in 1919. If gravity was ripples in space-time, Kaluza said electromagnetism was ripples in a hidden dimension that humans could not see. Oskar Klein suggested this hidden dimension was clockwise-counterclockwise, and other small, curly dimensions.
These hidden dimensions influence the way the strings vibrate; different frequencies. And the differing frequencies give particles their unique properties. They also control the vibrations that give the universe its 20 governing constants.
Now, my theory at this point...going back to the definition of String Theory, that =everything= is made up of tiny, vibrating strings of energy... This energy would be the Force. And the ability to use such energy directly would be the ability to alter the Strings and their vibrations directly. Which, considering that all we -are- is these strings vibrating at a certain frequency, is not all that improbable. For example, when I play my violin, if I play two strings at once, if I have tuned it properly, it creates -another- vibration, simply by the harmony of the two original vibrations. So if we can get ourselves in -harmony- with a different frequency of vibration...we can begin to affect it.
I'm not sure where I'm going with that yet, but that's what I have so far.
