What would be a good book for me to read to help me understand (or at least begin to) string theory?

Question

Looking for something a layman could understand.

Answer 1

A First Course in String Theory by B. Zwiebach is an easy introduction to the subject, but it will require some familiarity with various mathematical concepts. In all honesty, you're not going to "understand" string theory with popular literature, as aside from the formidable mathematics, there's not much to understand . . . it's simply a methematical model with huge degrees of freedom, and so people are trying to exploit this fact. So far, string theory has offered up no NEW information, it's simply a framework that some people hope is large enough to accomodate the entire theoretical body of physics. So far, Quantum Field Theory is the most successful physical theory outside of electrodynamics. I would probably start with QFT and develop the skills necessary to do string theory. If you don't want to do this, then pick of a copy of "The Elegant Universe" by Green.

Answer 2

I would suggest Parallel Worlds or Hyperspace both by Michio Kaku, in the book he talks about the origins of string theory and how it came to be developed over the years and where it is at now. The whole book is completely in layman terms, with many analogies and drawings to help the reader understand the different physics theories.

Answer 3

11 dimensional string theory, (and 26 dimensional M theory), has not produced anything.

It is possible that the extra 7 dimensions of space in string theory, (that are not perceived), are mathematical deception that first appeared with 5 dimensional Kaluza-Klein Theory.

String theory is possibly deception derived from adding dimensions of space to the already existing 3 dimensions of space one dimension at a time at 90 degree angles to the previous dimension.

That string theory is possibly invalid is stated at the end of the wikipedia article on string theory.

Answer 4

This article from Discovery Magazine.

http://discovermagazine.com/2005/aug

Answer 5

Wikipedia: String theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory

Its free and not difficult to read and a good place to start.

If you get through that page then there are some references at the bottom.

Answer 6

"Superstrings: A theory of Everything"
ISBN-10: 052143775X

Answer 7

You can read the books of Stephen Hawking...