• Question: what is string theory

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      Asked by Aoife to Aoife, Brian, Conor, Louise, Matthew on 10 Nov 2016.
      • Photo: Matthew Kitching

        Matthew Kitching answered on 10 Nov 2016:

        Hi 836newg36!

        Im sorry – i don’t have a good answer for this one. All i know about string theory is its super hard and smart people argue about it lots 🙂

        sounds like I’m gonna have to go away and do some reading!

      • Photo: Louise Mc Grath

        Louise Mc Grath answered on 11 Nov 2016:

        Hi 836newg36!

        This question is quite difficult for me to answer as I do not know much about string theory, except that Sheldon Cooper is obsessed with it and argues about it all the time (https://youtu.be/FMSmJCKaaC0?t=33) Even when I watch the show and they debate it.. I still find it hard to follow!

        This 11 year kid explains it quite well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXqvwGT8l9w. If you want to watch that and I can come back to you and give you an answer because I need to do a LOT of reading in order to answer this question properly!

      • Photo: Aoife Lucid

        Aoife Lucid answered on 11 Nov 2016:

        This answer is in two parts, firstly what is our current vision of particle physics? And secondly what is string theory?

        Our current understanding of particle physics is based on something called he standard model which has recently been completed by the discovery of the Higgs at CERN in 2012. The problem is with the standard model is it cannot describe the coming together of quantum mechanics (the theory that governs very small things like electrons) and general relativity (theory that governs large things like planets). This suggests that our picture is incomplete. This is where string theory comes in; string theory says that sub-atomic particles (like electrons, protons and neutrons) are made up of little strings of energy, these strings vibrate and the different ways they vibrate can make up different particles. It turns out that if you do the maths this is nice way to treat things that can bring quantum mechanics and relativity together. Though it needs to be said that string theory is very controversial as it requires many dimensions for the maths to actually work.

        I hope that this helped, I got a very smart friend of mine to help me to understand it better!

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