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Post by Somebody on Mar 19, 2005 19:36:13 GMT -5
String theory is based on the idea that everything is made up of tini moving energy strings, and that is centered around four forces: gravity, electro-magetism, weak atomic force (radiation...), strong atomic force. Gravity is supposedly waves of "space fabric" and planets and such are pulled to the fabric's indents. Black holes, according to believers of the string theory, are huge streched-out pieces of the gravitational fabric, and can not "suck up" each other.
Also, according to string theory, there is approxiamtelly 1/1,000,000,000,000,000 chance that someone, or an object, may pass through another object, even if they are both solids! The support for this ghostly behavior has to to with quantums, particularlly in the field of quantum mechanics. Physics proves to be important when testing these theories too; even when working with subatomic particles, also known as "quantums".
This is kind of off-topic, but since I'm relatively new, I'll just tell a little bit about myself. I'm 12 years old, know amounts of javascript, HTML, asm, and C. I'm looking foward to programming in C, Perl, and Python too. Oh, and I program in TI-86 BASIC lol and a member of a few calculator websites. I also enjoy science fiction and fantasy, because if I didn't, I probably wouldn't be here.
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Post by timewarp on Mar 19, 2005 21:27:32 GMT -5
String theory is based on the idea that everything is made up of tini moving energy strings, and that is centered around four forces: gravity, electro-magetism, weak atomic force (radiation...), strong atomic force. Gravity is supposedly waves of "space fabric" and planets and such are pulled to the fabric's indents. Black holes, according to believers of the string theory, are huge streched-out pieces of the gravitational fabric, and can not "suck up" each other. Also, according to string theory, there is approxiamtelly 1/1,000,000,000,000,000 chance that someone, or an object, may pass through another object, even if they are both solids! The support for this ghostly behavior has to to with quantums, particularlly in the field of quantum mechanics. Physics proves to be important when testing these theories too; even when working with subatomic particles, also known as "quantums". This is kind of off-topic, but since I'm relatively new, I'll just tell a little bit about myself. I'm 12 years old, know amounts of javascript, HTML, asm, and C. I'm looking foward to programming in C, Perl, and Python too. Oh, and I program in TI-86 BASIC lol and a member of a few calculator websites. I also enjoy science fiction and fantasy, because if I didn't, I probably wouldn't be here. I hate to say this, but you are underage. You are too young to legally be registered on a public message board. Sorry. You need to be 13.
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ConqueringWolf
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Post by ConqueringWolf on Mar 19, 2005 22:47:15 GMT -5
Timewarp is right....it is illegal for anyone under the age of 13 to be a member of a message board....a shame too....you really started a nice topic and i think you would have fit in quite well....please stop by again when you are 13...we would love to have you here
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xkamelx
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Post by xkamelx on Mar 19, 2005 22:58:23 GMT -5
They are right, we've had to delete your account to obey federal law, and Proboards TOS. We'd love for you to return once you're 13, we seem to have alot in common.
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syborg
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Post by syborg on Apr 20, 2005 10:43:48 GMT -5
Can anyone match the qualifications of this kid? I certainly do not, he knows a great deal more than I do. Although 95% of the things he has posted I absolutely do not understand at all
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Moreta
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Post by Moreta on May 21, 2005 18:39:15 GMT -5
Just thought Id explain in a little more detail whats been said here for anyone that is interested
String theory is now actually a little bit outdated and has been "replaced" by a new improved model known as M-Theory. It is incredibly similar and still uses the whole strings thing as the building blocks for everything. I wrote an essay about it a while back, Ill see if I can locate it for you all... when I wrote it I tried to keep it simple but I remember people still saying they didnt entirely understand it.
M -Theory is a theory they hope might connect quantum mechanics with astrophysics, that it might produce equations that can finally connect gravity with the three atomic forces, the Strong force, the Weak force and Electro-magnetism.
Somebody's description of gravity comes from Einstein's theory of relativity where space-time is described as a piece of rubber and gravity the occurence when a mass is placed on the rubber and it stretches. This is what happens to space-time only in four dimensions. Yes, thats right... time is also affected by gravity. A lot of people believe that time is an absolute constant but it is affected by several factors including speed and gravity.
Quantum physics predicts an awful lot of things... however, unfortunately as of yet there has been found no way to connect quantum with everyday life. Perhaps M - Theory will manage it or perhaps something else will... *shrugs* Perhaps it is an unsolvable mystery.
Here is the link to my essay if you are interested
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xkamelx
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Post by xkamelx on May 30, 2005 15:17:04 GMT -5
Somebody's description of gravity comes from Einstein's theory of relativity where space-time is described as a piece of rubber and gravity the occurence when a mass is placed on the rubber and it stretches. This is what happens to space-time only in four dimensions. Yes, thats right... time is also affected by gravity. A lot of people believe that time is an absolute constant but it is affected by several factors including speed and gravity. That is a perfect example, in my opinion. Also, some of the newist theories on time travel state that is is possible throught use of gravity.
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Moreta
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Post by Moreta on May 30, 2005 17:45:33 GMT -5
Yes... there are a few theories on that.
The one I know of is the theory that if you could travel faster than light you could go forwards in time (I think its forwards anyway...). Now it is not physically possible to go faster than the usual quoted speed of light in a vacuum (3x108m/s) because this is actually what is called the universal speed limit. As your speed increases your mass increases and at this speed limit your mass becomes infinite and it takes an infinite amount of energy to make you go any faster - therefore meaning it is not possible. However, since the speed of light is affected by gravity it would be possible to go faster than it then. So the idea is to travel around a black hole at about 3x108m/s and since the light is travelling more slowly you will be going faster than light and therefore travel in time. Well thats the theory at least... seems a bit odd to me, I mean, why would going faster than light allow you to go travel in time
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xkamelx
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Post by xkamelx on May 30, 2005 22:45:25 GMT -5
Morry, will you marry me? ;D A girl with astrophysics on the mind. ;D I have heard that time is a dimension, like the 3 dimensions of the universe. We live in this dimension as we do the others. When we travel at high speeds such as that, time slows down, almost as if we are catching up to it's velocity, if it has velocity. Time travels at the speed of light, the universal speed limit, so if we surpassed that speed, we would actually be moving back in time, traveling to the past. Or so one theory says. Another theory is that if I left you here on Earth, and traveled the speed of light for an hour my time, made a loop and came home, you would have aged something like 50 years, as where I would have aged for an hour because time for me has slowed down, but time for you remained constant.
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Moreta
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Post by Moreta on May 31, 2005 4:43:28 GMT -5
*Laughs* I just dont understand how people can be so disinterested in this part of Physics. It absolutely fascinates me. Im doing Physics at uni after my Gap Year and I absolutely cant wait. All the exciting front line research stuff Im gonna learn and everything!! *Grins*
Yeah, time is the fourth dimension... in Einstein's theory of Relativity he shows that gravity affects space-time, meaning time is slowed.
I read a brilliant book, well most of it anyway, called something like Mr Thompkins Adventures in the Universe. Which is a very clever explanation of the theory of Relativity. It has one chapter explaining it in a world we can picture and then gives you a chapter of the same thing but written in university lecture level. It was brilliant and is the only reason I vaguely understand the theory.
But yes, the faster you travel, the slower time travels. But its not that your time has slowed down, that is what is really mind boggling because for you it really was an hour. And therefore, if you were able to travel and somehow at the same time see what is happening to me, you would see me going super fast. Whereas if I were able to watch you I would just see you going superslow. Its all completely relative and when you start seeing things like that you realise that time itself is not quite so helpful as you think. I still find it hard to understand... and actually, now I think about it thats not quite accurate. Its not travelling at the high speed that causes time to travel weirdly, its the acceleration and deceleration that do it.
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xkamelx
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Post by xkamelx on May 31, 2005 22:42:35 GMT -5
I agree. This stuff fascinates me so much. I mean we live in a pretty dull world. The sun comes up every day, and sets every evening. We live in a world where you go to work every day, pay taxes and pay bills. 12PM comes around once a rotation of the Earth, and we count our life span via rotations around the sun. There is no seeing what will come tomorrow, or visiting the past to make something different. We are all prisoner's trapped on a one way ride. Beyond all of that, is the universe. The universe holds the answer to EVERYTHING, I believe, and has physics that would let us alter time, visited parallel realities, ect. With the monotony of every day to day Earth life, the universe is the perfect fuel for the imagination.
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Post by ==XerXes== on Oct 22, 2005 16:07:26 GMT -5
so far i've heard that they are trying to merge the world of electriciy and magnetism with the world of gravity, probably why its just a theory...
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Peter
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Post by Peter on Oct 23, 2005 13:57:22 GMT -5
*Laughs* I just dont understand how people can be so disinterested in this part of Physics. It absolutely fascinates me. Im doing Physics at uni after my Gap Year and I absolutely cant wait. All the exciting front line research stuff Im gonna learn and everything!! *Grins*
Indeed it is truly amazing! I just finished a book on string theory, which goes on to discuss M-theory as well, and I was very fascinated by what I found in it. I think this area of physics must be one of the ones most dear to my heart. There is an interesting perspective on this, being that all objects move at light speed, but their velocities are spread between the time and space dimensions, however, photons (carriers of light) move only through the space dimensions, thus able to travel at the largest possible velocity. I may be wrong, but your tone here seems to be somewhat sceptical on the whole issue of string theory. In fact, the merging of the electromagnetic and gravitational forces (along with the strong and weak forces) is one of the most compelling reasons to believe in string theory, or superstring theory to give it its fuller title (because this incarnation of it incorporates supersymmetry). Physicists have been searching for a theory that allows for the merging of these forces for a very long time. By the way, what do you mean by 'maybe thats why its just a theory' - what more is there than theories? Anyway, its a very interesting field of research. I am very glad to have read a book on it. I still withhold judgement on it currently though.
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Post by aion on Oct 24, 2005 17:08:42 GMT -5
M-theory is currently the most quoted and explored mathmatical explanantion for all observable phenomena. The M stands for "Membrane", and it is also commonly known as "Brane" theory for short. It requires a total of 11 dimensions in order to work. One of the interesting aspects of the theory is that it provides a answer to one of the more elusive questions that quantum mechanics has been sturggling with for a long time... "Why is gravity so weak relative to the other fundamental forces present in our observable reality?". In Brane theory the answer is that Gravity does not originate in our own "reality" but rather leaks into our own universe through the membranes of other realities. Pretty wierd stuff. Its hard to really talk intelligently about this stuff outside the language of mathematics. General nomenclature and visual imaginings really dont serve us well in these discussions. Thats also where the initial description of string theory in this thread falls pretty short. No offense intended, its hard stuff to describe.. so far i've heard that they are trying to merge the world of electriciy and magnetism with the world of gravity, probably why its just a theory... This is very old school I'm afraid. String Theory and M-theory are both extensions of the attempt for a Grand Unification of laws and forces. There are also the Weak and Strong nuclear forces that are currently in the mix too... just FYI
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