What does the "Single Unified Theory" suggest to scientists?

Question

I have no idea what they are talking about. It is a question with reference to a Caltech Video I watched.

What is this Single Unified Theory?

Answer 1

What does it mean? Trillions of dollars and early retirement. It's a long sought after and elusive mathematical/ physical "formula" that is hoped would explain gravity, electricity, and two types of nuclear forces, in the hopes of explaining how they are all 4 different sides of a single coin. Einstein tried and gave up in frustration. but somebody, somewhere, someday will come up with it, and we'll never be he same again.

Answer 2

You know that there are four forces in nature: electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, and gravity.

Look at the word electromagnetism. At one time, it was believed that electricity was one thing and magnetism was another. Then it was discovered that they are bound, making possible everything from electrical generators to stereo speakers.

We know that the weak nuclear force is not separate either. At high energies, it becomes bound to electromagnetism. We call this the electroweak force.

At very high energies, the strong nuclear force is bound in. But gravity is not. We cannot tie gravity to the other forces.

We have a equation for a force that describes everything that is happening all across the universe, except down inside the atom. That's annoying.

Scientists believe that the fact that gravity is not bound to the other forces means that we don't really understand it. This wouldn't be new. We thought we understood motion (F=ma) until we started thinking about speeds at real percentages of the speed of light. Then we needed relativity.

We've been looking for the single theory that would unify all of these forces, sometimes called the Grand Unified Theory or GUT (cute, because it would be the guts of the universe), for most of the last century. Einstein was looking for it.

Now it's the primary goal of places like CERN and FermiLab.

As physicist Leo Lederman said, "We hope to explain the entire universe in a single simple formula you can wear on your t-shirt."

Answer 3

Science would like a single explanation for the four forces that they know are at work in the universe. They are the strong force that holds an atomic nucleus together, the weaker force that holds the electrons in orbit, electromagnetic force and gravity.

They have had theories that explain all except gravity, which has unusual characteristics compared to the other forces. Now, with "string" theory, I think they have gravity included too. When dealing with such small forces and with subatomic particles, direct observation is not possible. They have to use a mathematical explanation. I'm sure they are still working on it.