String Theory Vid

[enoch]

For anyone who's perplexed (like I am most of the time) here's a cute vid on string theory, featuring Brian Greene. Enjoy! 8)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

[rainwing]

Wow, I see a Sliders-esque vortex on the third picture! I'll enjoy watching these, thank you.

Chris

[enoch]

no probs, duck :wink:

[journyman161]

There's a candidate or two I've read about for cosmic strings - these are strings which may be up to as long as across the universe & which weigh in at black hole weights - ie although one dimensional (only have length) they would create massive gravity disturbance if you get close.

They've found a couple of spots with gravitational lensing that are difficult to explain with anything except a string between us & the target galaxy.

Google CSL1 (for an explanation try http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/cs_home.html and here is the data http://people.na.infn.it/~longo/Ricerca ... csl1_2.htm (http://people.na.infn.it/~longo/Ricerca/Cosmic_strings/csl1_2.htm) )

[rainwing]

I've swallowed up these movies like a fine wine: sip, swish and spit. Good stuff all around!

I'm finally up to date on all the new wave of physics, because everyone I've ever tried to learn from prior to this movie has either been impatient that I couldn't understand right away, or used a lot of terminology I didn't understand, but forged ahead anyway. My favorite parts were the rendition of the quantum world as a spikey, chaotic place, and Isaac Newton's annoyed reaction to Einstein trying to advance his ideas on gravity.

Now I can finally say with some certainty what general relativity, quantum mechanics, string and M theory are all about, and the host was real fun, too. Kinda like an advanced Bill Nye.

Thanks a lot for the vids!

Chris

[journyman161]

*grins* OK rainwing, good... but keep in mind they are now a couple of years old & things have changed. Brian Greene is one of the best for explaining things but it would be impossible to explain all the new things in even 3 hours of video.

There are things like are we holograms living in a holographic universe that bear directly on the concepts presented by BG. Just trying to comprehend what it means to have more than 3 dimensions to play with is mind boggling - stretching it to wonder what the basic condition of all we know & all that it might come from is a strain & we are only playing in the wash away from the great waves of consciousness.

The idea that the cosmos is one huge symphony of strings is very appealing though. And who says the hologram has to be visual?

[rainwing]

What kind of new things have they found out about string and M since the video? All this new wave science has got my blood flowing!

Chris

[journyman161]

Well for example, the possible cosmic string they have found - google CSL1 - which changes slightly just what strings might be.

Black holes (or Dark Energy stars *grins*) are point sources of incredible mass... a cosmic string is a line of incredible mass. We don't know much about them yet except what the math says but you'd have to wonder if they have an event horizon (would it be a cosmic sausage shape? *grins*)

There is also the effects of what seems a rather large particle collider they have found in space - on earth we smash atoms or other particles together & observe the byproducts for traces of strange particles - most of the sub-atomic particles have been found this way - and they are large circular tunnels lined with magnets along which particles are accelerated to significant percentages of the speed of light & then smashed together.

There are strange 'effects' coming from a circular ring of space - about 20 light years across!

There are those beginning to combine two separate fields of knowledge - when you bring together String theory & holographic universe theory, some very interesting things start to pop out of the equations & they are just getting their heads around this stuff.

The problems are along the lines of...
'Where does the universe go when it is not here?'
'How does it know how to reform itself when it comes back?'
'How do you investigate strings when the smallest probe we can think of is like trying to touch a grain of sand with a probe the size of the sun?'
'Exactly how is it that experimental data is showing that human consciousness can actually affect the structure & behaviour of the universe if it is made of strings?'

As the Black Holes/Dark Energy thread shows, Quantum theory changes the very possibilities we can consider even for things we thought were becoming familiar.

There is even evidence that contradicts Relativity - not just refining it but suggesting the Michelson-Morley experiments regarding the presence of an Ether (Aether) permeating all space were correct. (The MM experiment was proclaimed a definitive success in proving there is no ether, something required by relativity but the truth is, it, and a variety of other experiments on the same subject, not only showed an ether but became accurate enough to predict the real course of the Earth & Solar Sytem through space before anyone knew what it really was.

Being a paradigm shift, Quantum Mechanics & String Theory alter almost everything we think we knew - it just takes time to realise how.

Rainwing, I don't know what country you live in, but if in the U.S., the Science channel, the Biography channel, the History channel, and in the past the Learning Channel (they've changed their programming, so not sure) have programs on now and then that relate to String Theory, M Theory, Quantum Physics, Physics, and even programs on Einstein and some of the other big name scientists. It's always watered down for public consumption to make things eaiser to understand. I even saw one that was a show about Quantum Physics that was done as a comedy, but with real science behind it. :D Hehe! "The Elegant Universe" is one of the things I watched on Nova.

[enoch]

It's always watered down for public consumption to make things eaiser to understand

THANKFULLY :lol:

[rainwing]

I think I spend too much time on SciFi and Cartoon Network. :oops:

Chris