String Theory

[Silencer]

I've checked out superstringtheory.org and some other places, but I haven't found something that gives a very basic overview of what strings are. Like, how were they developed? What problems do they solve? How do they behave?

 

The string theory website was very in deapth, but without a proper background I just couldn't make sense of what they were saying.

 

I realize that describing this stuff can be tough and time consuming, so thanks in advance.

[Asimov Pupil]

seems to me i just read an excellent book on the subject called "the elegant universe" by brian greene (i would highly recomend this to anyone). strings are one dimentional which gets rid of the problem of breaking down quarksand thier properties are determined by its occilation pattern and vibration rate ie(mass, what particle it is and so on). it also introduces one new particle for every particle we do know about (i'm not sure if this compensates for the "missing energy" in the universe). tears in space is also solved because edward witten came up with the sixth string theory which made them all unified in M-Theory, where you have 2D membranes (p-branes, p is any integer for the number of dimentions) which act as a buffer for the randomness of quantum theory and ties the two theorys together. it is nearly impossible to explain in limited space so if you can i suggest the book it is highly informative

[Asimov Pupil]

the book is simple and it gives background to relativity and quantum theory HURRAY BRIAN GREENE!!!

[ed84c]

In short, they give an ability to quantise gravity.