OT: String Theory

[Renegade 13]

A couple of quotes that may help to shed some light on string theory. All are taken from "Origin & Fate of the Universe" a special cosmology issue of Astronomy magazine:

String theory suggests that particles in the universe are composed of loops of vibrating strings. Like a violin or piano string, one of these fundamental strings has many different harmonics. In string theory, harmonics correspond to different elementary particles. If string theory proves correct, electrons, photons, and neutrinos are different due to changes in the vibrations of the strings.

One of the areas that string theory helps physicists out in is the apparent clash between General relativity and quantum mechanics:

General relativity described large objects such as the solar system, galaxies, and the universe. Quantum mechanics, as elaborated in the standard model, described small objects such as atoms, molecules, and subatomic particles. Physicists, however, are not satisfied having two different theories that work in two different realms. One reason is simply that big objects ultimately are made out of little objects. The same forces operate on both atoms and stars, for example, even though gravity is more obvious for stars while electricity and magnetism dominate in atoms.

If string theory proves correct, all elementary particles...owe their existence to subtle differences in the vibrations of strings. The theory offers a way to unite disparate particles because they are, in essence, differnet manifestations of the same basic string.

Now I've probably just gone and confused you more, but I hope the quotes help you understand it a little better.

[Gandalf Parker]

EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro said:
I can't understand the dimensions thingy. Can you go into those dimensions? What would it be like? And most importantly does it hurt?

From what little I can follow (still waiting for Quantum Theory for Dummies to be written) it seems that membranes are closer to what we would call dimensions.

What they call dimensions seems to be like this....
a fungus lives in one dimension, a bacteria in 2d like on a flat surface, an animal in 3 adding up/down, we live in 4 by adding time. Not a great comparison but something along those lines. Whats twists the head and makes you not sleep so well is.. a 2d might cross the paths of a 1d but the 1d will never be able to understand what it was and why it did what it did. It would seem to appear and disappear from its universe. A 3d animal might interact with a 2d but its way beyond any understanding. A human might cross paths with a wild wolf which will never understand the whats and whys of it. Even more so if another human crossed its path later since the explanation would involve time. Not so much an intelligence thing, just that without that dimension all of the explanations fall flat.

Thats 4, out of 10. What if all unexplainable things were 5, 6, 7... awwh heck figure the most unexplainable is sitting at 10. NAHH forget all that. Thats for someone else to figure out when we get smarter.