string theory for beginners

I'm surprised this show was on free TV in Oz, years ago...

And you can DL is for free

But I would't quite call it for beginers, I still don't realy understand it myself, but I will be doing physics for my senior years at school, this year...

it's pretty interesting. I'm not really understanding the whole thing but then again they really aren't going into much detail on the theory itself, just that it could explain everthing. I suppose to understand more I'd have to take a course at my college.

Kenom said:

it's pretty interesting. I'm not really understanding the whole thing but then again they really aren't going into much detail on the theory itself, just that it could explain everthing.

Click to expand...

String theory is quite in defense nowadays. Their critics say that yet it can explain everything, it has not predicted anything new which could be verified by experiment. Don't know if things are different now whith the new accelerator in cern?
Alway wanted to understand it, but it seems one need to be graduadet in physics AND math to really get it.
Nice Interview to the topic: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/view-witten.html

andythemechanic said:

[quote author=Kenom link=1231738498/0#2 date=1231778101]it's pretty interesting.  I'm not really understanding the whole thing but then again they really aren't going into much detail on the theory itself, just that it could explain everthing.

Click to expand...

String theory is quite in defense nowadays. Their critics say that yet it can explain everything, it has not predicted anything new which could be verified by experiment. Don't know if things are different now whith the new accelerator in cern?
Alway wanted to understand it, but it seems one need to be graduadet in physics AND math to really get it.
Nice Interview to the topic: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/view-witten.html[/quote]


String Theory is Soooooo last year . . . . .

I mean REALLY . . . . . how could a measly 10 dimensions suffice?

Obviously 11 dimensions are needed.

Introducing M-Theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory

Peace,
dave

M-theory wouldn't even exist if it were not for the supergravity people who were at odds with string theorists. It's all about the dimensions, lol.

andythemechanic said:

[quote author=Kenom link=1231738498/0#2 date=1231778101]it's pretty interesting.  I'm not really understanding the whole thing but then again they really aren't going into much detail on the theory itself, just that it could explain everthing.

Click to expand...

String theory is quite in defense nowadays. Their critics say that yet it can explain everything, it has not predicted anything new which could be verified by experiment. Don't know if things are different now whith the new accelerator in cern?
Alway wanted to understand it, but it seems one need to be graduadet in physics AND math to really get it.
Nice Interview to the topic: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/view-witten.html[/quote]

The LHC is broken, they didn't even get to actual experiments before they broke the thing. It's out until at least later this year. They also had to re-pressurize a big part of it for the repairs, and replace a LOT of stuff, so even once it's fixed, they're almost starting it all back up again. I don't remember exactly what broke, but they ended up releasing some helium...very violently. When the liquid helium got exposed it vaporized and exploded with enough force to blow magnets off of their mounting (and these are some STRONG magnets, so to break them off their mountings takes a lot). I think it also dirtied the system, so they'll be cleaning and taking quite a while to get it back down to operating vacuum and starting the beams back up.

But what is the M? Mystical, Magical, Marvelous?

Kenom said:

But what is the M?  Mystical, Magical, Marvelous?

Click to expand...

IIRC (not necessarily trustworthy after a full day of lecture) it was chosen because the the new theory, in trying to encompass the other major string theories (and super-gravity), focused on the interactions along the Membranes of the other dimensions.  Can't have something unless you can identify the "edges" of the thing.  Therefore, dimensions MUST have "membranes" to hold them together and define the boundries of said dimensions.

No.  I couldn't begin to explain what those interactions might be.  It gets well beyond my understanding of math.  Remember, my generation didn't even identify "time" as a dimension.

Peace,
dave

daguin said:

...
Obviously 11 dimensions are needed.

Introducing M-Theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory

Peace,
dave

Click to expand...

Then the ultimate theory is n-dimensional with n any number from 3 to infinity and all present theorys can be derived from this by taking the limit n --> some number ;D
Reminds me at the joke how a mathmatician imagines a 4-dimensional space: just imagine an n-dimensional space and take the limit n->4

omfg I cant understand it xd