How long is a piece of string ???

If we could adjust the focus and range of light we see to the full spectrum would we see strings vibrating in and out of our 4 dimensional world like the digitised green code of the matrix movies ???or do they vibrate faster than light ???and how do you tie them together or don't you???Do they remain single bits or join to form one continuous bit stretched across 11 dimensions with only those existing in our 4 being visible as matter ???Could somebody point me in the general direction minus the mathematics please...thanx in advance

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

I think you are biting off way to much to attempt to get your head around string theory. I hope this was a joke. If it isn't you have a long way to go."stings" are mathematical objects. Exactly what correspondance they might have to "real" objects I simply don't know enough about to guess at. You might want to try some googles on quantum mechanics and such first. That is weird enough and we've had most of century for ppl to work out how to explain it.

Thanks Ned......I know you probably have to go through a thru years of post grad physics to even get to the stage of being able to comprehend or add to the base of knowledge about string theory but I thought by asking sum truly ignorant questions it might help fast trak a laymans understanding of the latest theory of everythingas far as "tying strings together" take that to mean...What holds them together to form different elements if they are all the same string or do they come in different lengths and diameters to start with ???

The more kinetic energy a piece of string has (meaning the higher the frequency of vibration), the heavier the element will be.

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The Laminator

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Hi Ringo, Brian Greene's book Elegant Universe is a good place to start to learn about String Theory. I read it twice and still am fuzzy about some of the more abstract concepts he poses. The strings are said to be Planke's Length thereby sidestepping any quantum problems. I noticed alot of the concepts of SST tends to ask questions like how could X be explained? Then a computer generated answer like it would have to have X number of dimentions for it to work. Then a question like how could X generate or have X amount of gravity? Then the answer would be something like the string would have to have a certain unbelievable amount of surface tension. In short..the theory seems to make sense because the math is built around the model. Whether or not something like "strings" exist is another can of worms..or strings if you like. I believe Mr. Greene is right when saying a unifying theory will someday be descovered that will merge QM and Gravity. But is it String Theory or something altogether different is another story. Anyway I do think he attempts to put it in laymans terms..unfortunate for me even that was a stretch..JMHO *edit mispelled.*more typos..sheesh.This message has been edited by 1.61803, 06-28-2004 11:23 PMThis message has been edited by 1.61803, 06-28-2004 11:28 PM

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"One is punished most for ones virtues" Fredrick Neitzche

ahhhhh planck length...of course...thanx 1.61803I was searching for that book and came across this documentary of the same name and hosted by the author, complete with nifty grafix.You couldn't it get more laid back for the laymancheers NOVA | The Elegant Universe | Watch the Program | PBS

having watched the doco which is really good by the way I was left wondering, if strings are bands of energy, are they subject to the e=mc2 thing ???

Twice the distance from the center to either end.

That E=Mc^2 'thing'? I'm afraid you'll have to explain what you mean by that.You can't just enter any type of energy into the formula and magically get some sort of object with mass out of it. However, if a complete theory for strings is developed, it should explain how strings gives rise to such things. Most likely the formula will be a bit more elaborate than that because not all types of energy is bound as mass.This message has been edited by Melchior, 07-03-2004 08:46 PM

oops...double clickThis message has been edited by RingoKid, 07-04-2004 01:00 AM

thanks Melchior......so could you give me an example of energy without mass and account for it by string theory ???and crash, I didn't know you could halve a unit of planck length and it would still register as a particle in 4d spacetime......thanx for that also

and correct them if you can...

quote:

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If we could adjust the focus and range of light we see to the full spectrum would we see strings vibrating in and out of our 4 dimensional world like the digitised green code of the matrix movies ???

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Ok so this got me to thinking...it's kinda dependent on light only existing or being visible in our 4d universe and strings not vibrating in all 11 dimensions at onceImagine a loop of 11 electrical switches with a single wire connecting all of them however we can only see 4 switches in the loop the rest are shrouded in darkness or too small to see, take that to represent 11 dimensions and a "string" of which we can only detect the 3 visible dimensions plus time making 4A self generating current between any 2 switches connected by the wire in the loop would be likened to a vibration of a string as it passed through each dimension,such that the current would exist somewhere between any of the 11 switches depending how long the pulse was, yet we would only register it if it passed across our 4 switches meaning the maximum current we could detect would be 3 units long.This effect when likened to a string passing thru our 4 dimension universe would register as a point in spacetime as only then could we see it's effect and it could then constitute to the make up of a given particle. The number and combination of dimensions other than our 4 that it vibrates in gives it its rate of vibration and determines it's physical characteristics in our universe.Any less than bridging all four switches and it would probably register only as a field in an electromagnetic wave, light, empty space, a positive or negative charge or maybe a graviton... in short how the hell should I know ???The thing is will we ever see to believe what is going on ???and what then would the effect of observing have on the string and on the fabric of hyperreality, being that we are supposedly made of strings ???Would we vibrate right out of existence and back at any point in time if we choose???Is God waiting...ok so I'm getting a bit poetic now butWhat if the switches were laid out in a figure of 8 with the cross over point being the time dimension ???

First, one example of energy without mass is when you heat something up. I have absolutely no idea on how you'd related that to string theory, or if you'd want to in the first place, because I'm not a theoretical scientist studying it and the idea of strings isn't completed yet.The idea is that while strings vibrate partially in other dimentions, this gives rise to measurable effects that in 'our' dimentions. Gravity might be an effect of a certain kind of vibration.I would think it's impossible to actually look at strings anyway. Why would they absorb light?This message has been edited by Melchior, 07-05-2004 06:50 AM

Well, it's difficult to measure, but according to relativity heating something up adds mass.Some people go so far as to to interpret E=mc² as an identity rather than a mere equality; that is, any difference we see between "mass" and "energy" is an artifact of our limited sensory systems.