aommaster Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 Hi guys! From what I understand about the string theory: It is a theory that is trying to unifry the four fundamental forces of nature (electromagnetism, gravity, the weak force, and the strong force). The string theory tries to create a set of master equations that will unifry all those four forces. My question is, what will the equations actually tell us? What will they calculate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LazerFazer Posted October 24, 2005 Share Posted October 24, 2005 Ahhh... just the type of question I wanted (I just did a presentation on this today, so its fresh in my mind ) Alright, back on topic. Basically, at the time of Einsteins death, there were two theories that described our universe, General Relativity, which dealt with super-massive things, and Quantum Theory, which dealt with things on the sub-atomic level. Problem was, they conflicted with each other. Since they were both supposed to explain the SAME universe (ours), they should not have conflicted. Thats where string theory comes in. It attempts to reconcile the two, and provide a set of eqauations that provide the reasons for anything and everything happening in the universe at any given time... and hopefully that will allow us to predict what happens when the two theories (gen. rel. and Quantum) need to be used simulataneously, such as at the center of a black hole, or at the beginning of our universe, split-seconds before and after the big bang. It could tell us how we came to be here, and how and why our universe developed how it did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanJ Posted October 24, 2005 Share Posted October 24, 2005 Basically' date=' at the time of Einsteins death, there were two theories that described our universe, General Relativity, which dealt with super-massive things, and Quantum Theory, which dealt with things on the sub-atomic level. Problem was, they conflicted with each other. Since they were both supposed to explain the SAME universe (ours), they should not have conflicted. Thats where string theory comes in. It attempts to reconcile the two, and provide a set of eqauations that provide the reasons for anything and everything happening in the universe at any given time... and hopefully that will allow us to predict what happens when the two theories (gen. rel. and Quantum) need to be used simulataneously, such as at the center of a black hole, or at the beginning of our universe, split-seconds before and after the big bang. It could tell us how we came to be here, and how and why our universe developed how it did.[/quote'] A great descriptio there LazerFazer! I'd just like to add this: search these forums and you'll find loads of threads about String Theory and maybe these links will interest you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Theory http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/ Cheers, Ryan Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aommaster Posted October 25, 2005 Author Share Posted October 25, 2005 Thanks alot for that guys! By the way, you know the PBS.org website you gave me? We watched the whole set of Elegant Universe videos at school, which was pretty cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LazerFazer Posted October 26, 2005 Share Posted October 26, 2005 Have you actually read The Elegant Universe? It provides some interesting insight into string theory, why it came about, how it came about, and what evidence we have to 'proove' it. It's usefull if you want a more indepth understanding of string theory, as the PBS/Nova series leaves out a significant amount of material to make it more understandable for the masses. cheers, LazerFazer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvoN1020v Posted October 26, 2005 Share Posted October 26, 2005 Thanks for the clearance! I was wondering what "strong force" and "weak force" are though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xyph Posted October 26, 2005 Share Posted October 26, 2005 The strong nuclear force holds quarks together, the weak nuclear force holds nucleons (protons and neutrons) together. The weak force is actually just a less direct effect of the strong force, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timo Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 Thanks for the clearance! I was wondering what "strong force" and "weak force" are though? They are two of the four fundamental forces in physics (I think I´d prefer the term "intercations"). As usual for such a rather broad question, wikipedia is a good start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_force. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timo Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 The weak force is actually just a less direct effect of the strong force, though. Can you explain what you mean by that? It doesn´t sound as if it´s correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 The strong nuclear force holds quarks together, the weak nuclear force holds nucleons (protons and neutrons) together. The weak force is actually just a less direct effect of the strong force, though. The weak force changes quark identities by exchanging a W or Z. I don't think it has anything to do with nuclear attraction. The strong force doesn't act on leptons, so I don't see how the weak force can be characterized as a "less direct effect if the strong force." I echo Atheist's call for clarification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aommaster Posted October 27, 2005 Author Share Posted October 27, 2005 Have you actually read The Elegant Universe? It provides some interesting insight into string theory' date=' why it came about, how it came about, and what evidence we have to 'proove' it. It's usefull if you want a more indepth understanding of string theory, as the PBS/Nova series leaves out a significant amount of material to make it more understandable for the masses. cheers, LazerFazer[/quote'] Actaully, I haven't. I've only watched the series. But, if you think its a good read, then, I'll try and get hold of the book! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xyph Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 Can you explain what you mean by that? It doesn´t sound as if it´s correct. The weak force changes quark identities by exchanging a W or Z. I don't think it has anything to do with nuclear attraction. The strong force doesn't act on leptons' date=' so I don't see how the weak force can be characterized as a "less direct effect if the strong force." I echo Atheist's call for clarification.[/quote']Ah, I'm wrong, then, sorry about that. I thought the weak nuclear force just referred to the attraction between individual quarks in neighbouring nucleons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Severian Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 I thought the weak nuclear force just referred to the attraction between individual quarks in neighbouring nucleons. To be technical, the "strong force" is really the residual force left over between the colorless hadrons (analagous to the Van der Walls force between nuetral molecules, which is a residual of the electromagnetic force). The fundamental force between quarks and gluons is really the "color force" or more properly Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD). The weak force has nothing to do with the strong force. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aommaster Posted November 7, 2005 Author Share Posted November 7, 2005 Which book of the elegant universe do you recommend? I did a search on Amazon, and two books came up: *The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory *The Elegant Universe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashennell Posted November 7, 2005 Share Posted November 7, 2005 So what exactly is the conflict between relativity and quatum theories? Where do they disagree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aommaster Posted November 7, 2005 Author Share Posted November 7, 2005 Hehe.. although not an answer to my question: Relativity deals with massive objects, and its equations work fine with it Quantum physics deals with extremely tiny particles, like atoms and subatomic particles. They start to falll apart when dealing with objects like black holes. Which one should scientists use? Relativity because a black hole is extremely massive, or quantum physics, because the black hole is extremely small? Whichever one is used, the values that come out is non-sensical, and that is where they collapse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LazerFazer Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 @aommaster Not sure what the full title is... but its by Brian Greene. As for the falling apart of QM and GR, I was under the impression that it's when you use BOTH together that you get nonsense values. Such as infinite probabilities, and things like that. And yes, combining the two would be required in the case of a black hole, which is both massive (gravitationally) and miniscule (spatially). LF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aommaster Posted November 10, 2005 Author Share Posted November 10, 2005 About the books....that is the problem. BOTH of the books are by Brian Greene! And both seem related to what I want. Which one is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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