How long is a piece of STRING

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Did anyone catch the SBS2 show elegant universe last night?
WOW!
I was expecting planets deep space.
What we got was Quantum Physics, Strings, and Membrane theories.

Boy that made my head hurt.

And then I hear there are 11 Dimensions (7 of which are unknown to us)

I was a first level Maths student, but how does one prove a theory like that. I am in awe of people who can grasp that stuff! Like Professor Lineweaver (spelling???) at the SPSP this year.

But sometimes I think, some people just think too much!

[Baron von Richthofen (Vaclav)]

A zero length piece of string is infinitely long

[Jen]

No i missed it my heads hurting just thinking about it too

[renormalised (Carl)]

It's about this "" long.

At present, it can't be proven empirically because they have no way of devising any tests which can physically measure objects that small or dimensions of spacetime other than what we can see. It's a mathematical construct which is, at present, our best theory for explaining why things are the way they are.

Think of cosmic strings as being akin to a simple harmonic oscillator...like the strings of a guitar. The mathematics are actually very similar except that strings are dealing with packets of energy that define spacetime and all that's in it, whilst the guitar strings are dealing with sound. You have a fundamental tone and an infinite number of overtones, all with an unique vibration. Each vibration, or overtone, defines a particular characteristic of an atom, or subatomic particle. It also defines the field of the particle and how it behaves. How it interacts (or doesn't interact) with everything else. Those overtones can change depending on whether they lose or gain energy or interact with other overtones/strings.

You could say that reality is fundamentally musical...and so is mathematics

[marki]

Q: How long is a piece of string?

A: Twice as long as the distance from the centre to any one end .

My father used to ask me that when he didn't want to or could not answer my questions.

Mark

[sjastro]

I was a first level Maths student, but how does one prove a theory like that......

One of the many problems with String Theory it can neither be proved nor disproved.

The biggest flaw with String Theory when applied to Cosmology is that space time has to be flat for the theory to work. Given that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating there is a possibility that an open space time geometry exists which presents new challenges to the theory.

Then of course there are 5 different string theories in existence. No one is certain which is the appropriate theory for the Universe.

As you may gather I am not a fan of the theory or theories.

Regards

Steven

[NeilW]

You may have seen this from one of my earlier posts:

http://www.telesio-galilei.com/string_theory.png

[DJDD]

Originally Posted by marki

Q: How long is a piece of string?

A: Twice as long as the distance from the centre to any one end .

My father used to ask me that when he didn't want to or could not answer my questions.

Mark

i thought you just got out a ruler and measured it...

[snowyskiesau]

I think they just make this stuff up as they go along.
Anything to keep tenure

[cfranks (Charles)]

+1 ^

Charles

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Ah yes - how long indeed.

I did a quick calculation and from all the pieces of string I could find in my house and the average length is 3872mm.

I am sure there is something in that for us all!