gazza

thanks for your interesting and informative replies folks.I now understand about String theory ;-) However ,this got me thinking about light and the electromagnetic spectrum. Is there a theoretical limit to how high the frequency that the gamma ray spectrum can go? I thought that the more energy put into a photon would just increase the amplitude of the waveform,i.e, it's intensity rather than it's frequency. So what "adjusts" the frequency of light/elctromagnetic waveforms? Taking the guitar string analogy, of the string being fixed between two points in space,could the same be said of a wave of electomagnetic form? I know that visible light wavelengths are measured in nm,and that the scale becomes so small at gamma ray wavelengths that it has to be measured in electron volts instead,I just wondered if the theoretical "string" length of gamma rays is limited to quantum foam scale,therefore there is a frequency limit. Look forward to reading your replies. Thanks.

Hi all,hope someone clever can help me think my questions through. I'm wondering a number of things. Firstly, what is the maximum speed a guitar string moves when plucked? To expand further, a C string for example has a fundamental wave. When pulled back and released ,the string must accelerate to a maximum speed then slow down to a stop, then travel in the reverse direction ,oscillating back and forth until it comes to rest. To complicate matters,to my understanding the string will vibrate with harmonics of which these will be integers of the standing wave. The string appears to have nodes or points at which the string is not moving but at other points it is moving between two maximum points in space at X speed. Will the string be moving at greater speed for the harmonic portion of the string( giving those higher frequency harmonics) that the standing wave portion? I feel I may be missing some fundamentals involving frequency/ wavelength & mass and velocity relationships.Thanks in advance for helping my poor brain out:D

Hi all, newbie here.hoping someone can answer my question. I was reading an interesting article about dark matter. It mentioned about clouds of gas in deeps space being millions of degrees kelvin therfore giving off x-rays which in turn makes them visible to x-ray telescopes. I couldn't quite get my head round the idea of gas floating in the vastness of space at near absolute zero being at such high temperatures. I can kind of understand gas being hot from an exploding star/nova or being dense enough itself to form a star,but not why in such freezing temperatures it remains hot. Probably something obvious I'm not thinking of! I kind of imagine the gas being not too dense and loosley packed. perhaps my assumption is wrong. This led onto another thought. Firing off in a hypathetical space ship into seemingly "empty " space,one might encounter an invisible gas cloud,which presumably being millions of degrees K would destroy said ship? many thanks in advance for any replies