What is String Theory? Many science enthusiasts have been struggling to understand the concept of this theory. Professor Brian Randolph Greene, an American theoretical physicist and mathematician, used an orange to explain String Theory in the most simplified terms.
“Imagine, if I have a beautiful tree that’s filled with oranges. And I ask myself, what is the orange made of?” Greene explained. “How do I answer that question?”
“Well, I want to look deeply inside the orange,” he continued. “So, I magnified and I magnified again. And if I keep on doing it, deep inside, sooner or later, I begin to see molecules coming to view.”
Greene revealed that molecules are not the end of the story as something lies inside the molecules.
“I can enlarge the molecules. And If I make them big enough, deep inside, I begin to see atoms,” Greene explained. “Atoms are not the end of the story too, because we have electrons zooming around the nucleus, deep inside, mostly space in the atom, we see the nucleus.”
“So if I grab the nucleus and magnify it, I see that the nucleus is itself made of particles, neutrons, and protons,” he continued. “And if I grab one of the neutrons and magnify it, I find yet, further particles. Little tiny corks inside. Now that is where the conventional ideas stop.”
What is String theory?
As the general idea ends with the little tiny corks inside the neutrons, scientists like Greene believe that is not the end of the story.
“String theory comes along and suggests that inside these there is something else,” Green explains. “So if I take a little cork and magnify it, conventional ideas say that there is nothing inside. But string theory says that I will find a little tiny filament. A little filament of energy. A little string-like filament.”
“And just like the string on a violin, I pluck it and it vibrates, creating a little musical note that I can hear. The little strings in string theory do not produce musical notes when they vibrate,” he added. “Instead, they produce the particles themselves.”
“So a Cork is nothing but a string vibrating in one pattern,” Greene explains. “An Electron is nothing but a string vibrating in a different pattern.”
“A Neutrino is nothing but a string vibrating in a different pattern,” he continued.
“So if I take all these back together, I have my ordinary orange. And if these ideas are right, deep inside the orange, or any other piece of matter is nothing but a dancing, vibrating cosmic symphony of strings. That’s the basic idea of string theory,” Greene concludes.
Conclusion
Professor Brian Randolph Greene, is an American theoretical physicist and mathematician. He used an orange to explain String Theory in the most simplified terms. You can watch the video above to learn more about his explanations. What do you think about this? Check out these space gifts for your loved ones.
