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could u please make this in easy to understand english? i've read a bunch of sites about it but none of them make since. and made could u give me a link or something?

thanks!

2007-08-05 05:51:09 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Physics

4 answers

Here's a good article from Discovery Magazine.

http://discovermagazine.com/2005/aug/

2007-08-05 06:09:15 · answer #1 · answered by eri 7 · 0 0

Given you went to the "sites" and found them confusing, I'll not send you to the web. Instead, here it is...straight and simple.

String/M theory posits infinitely thin, very short vibrating strings that make up everything in the universe...both mass and energy. The length of a string (10^-33 cm) is so short that, if you expanded your fingernail to the size of the universe, you'd see a string the original size of your fingernail.

String/M theory also posits how we see a string in our known universe depends solely on how fast the string is vibrating. At some frequency, we see strings as photons, bundles of light. At another frequency, the string looks like and acts like an electron...and so on. String/M theory also posits the graviton, based on a given frequency.

The graviton is the hypothetical messenger particle that attracts mass to mass, it causes that force we call gravity. And that's one of the major reasons for string/M theory...to be able to predict gravity with the same equations as the other three forces: electro-magnetic, and the two atomic forces...weak and strong.

String/M theory also uses 10 or 11 dimensions to do all these predictions. These are just mathematical constructs necessary to come up with the four forces when compacted to our standard four dimensions (x,y,z,t) of the universe. It's kind of like projecting a 2D shadow of a 3D box onto a screen. Only in string/M theory, they project 10 or 11 dimensions onto our normal four dimensions.

There are actually more than one string theory...I think five is the current number. And that is rather embarassing to physicists. There should be one theory for one physical effect. Thus a gent named Ed Witten, suggested the five theories are just the same theory, but seen from five different points of view. And Witten's theory is called M theory...no one really knows what "M" stand for...not even Witten.

One of the spin offs of higher dimensions is that, if they are real and not must a math trick, that suggests parallel universes might exist. Brian Greene, one of Witten's colleagues, suggests the parallel universes are like slices of bread in a mega universe loaf. Each slice is separated from the other by existing along some set of dimensions other than our own of space and time. [See source.]

One of the spin offs of parallel universes is that maybe the big bang, the commonly accepted beginning of our known universe, resulted when two parallel universes collided for a very brief moment...called Plank time. The change in momenta in the two universes released HUGE amounts of energy into both universes. And that energy in ours is called the big bang.

Strongly recommend "The Elegant Universe" if you are really interested in string/M theory. It is written on two levels, the math level and the non math level; so I think you will be able to get something out of it. PBS also airs the video version of "The Elegant Universe" from time to time. Worth watching; Brian Greene himself hosts and narrates it.

2007-08-05 07:20:27 · answer #2 · answered by oldprof 7 · 0 0

It is only a hypothesis--not a theory.

2007-08-05 15:59:12 · answer #3 · answered by Mark 6 · 0 0

http://www.superstringtheory.com/

2007-08-05 05:59:49 · answer #4 · answered by Ink Corporate 7 · 0 0

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