"Think of a guitar string that has been tuned by stretching the string under tension across the guitar. Depending on how the string is plucked and how much tension is in the string, different musical notes will be created by the string. These musical notes could be said to be excitation modes of that guitar string under tension.
. In a similar manner, in string theory, the elementary particles we observe in particle accelerators could be thought of as the “musical notes” or excitation modes of elementary strings.
. In string theory, as in guitar playing, the string must be stretched under tension in order to become excited. However, the strings in string theory are floating in spacetime, they aren’t tied down to a guitar. Nonetheless, they have tension. The string tension in string theory is denoted by the quantity 1/(2 p a’), where a’ is pronounced “alpha prime"and is equal to the square of the string length scale.”
What I like about the theory is that, like the search for quantum gravity, it is post-Newtonian, giving some leeway to creative imagination. It upsets our traditional ideas about dimensions. Yet, as a reductionist theory, it still lacks emphasis on what precedes the vibrations. There is always in such reductions a next step.
I believe in String Theory (more M-Theory) for the most part. It lacks explanation as to the why?.. Why only 11 dimensions? Why is space so inconsistent at a sub-atomic level? The question Why, in itself, should be something answered by religion… Something science will refuse to believe even if the evidence is there.
What I find fasinating about the String Theory is that the string theory is a step towards the correct fundamental description of nature. In particular, string theory is the first candidate for the theory of everything (TOE), a way to describe the known fundamental forces (gravitational, electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions) and matter (quarks and leptons) in a mathematically complete system.
Yes. There simply ‘is’ some ‘thing’. Whether this thing be light and light + spin = matter, or whether it is strings made out of nothing but their dimensions, crucial in both models is the harmonic resonance.
The universe is of the same nature as music. That is why life without music is a mistake.
String Theory, or better M-Theory, is one of several possibilities for a ToE that scientists are looking for in order to reconcile the General Theory of Relativity (aka Geometry) with Quantum Theory. There are two main problems with it: it has proven very stubborn to testing of the theory; and it describes so many universes that many scientists have abandoned it because it’s too unwieldy. Mr. Ockham sort of brought them to their senses, so to speak. It’s not dead yet, although other theories are gaining ascendancy over M-theory.
Here’s a link to the New Scientist article that gives a synopsis of seven of the possibilites for the ToE, including String or M-Theory.