It speaks to the importance of discoveries in physics over the previous few generations that even the disinterested layman has heard of the sector’s central challenge. In short, there exist two sepacharge systems: general relativity, which describes the physics of area, time, and gravity, and quantum mechanics which describes the physics of enjoyabledamalestal particles like electrons and photons. Every being applicable solely at its personal scale, one would appear to be incompatible with the other. What the sector must convey them together is type of a “grand unified theory,” a concept that has lengthy since labored its method into popular culture.
In the Massive Suppose video above, physicist Michio Kaku explains this scientific quest for what he calls “the God equation” in about 5 minutes. Such an equation “ought to unify the fundamental concepts of physics.” However general relativity as conceived by Albert Einstein is “primarily based on easy surfaces,” whereas quantum mechanics is “primarily based on chopping issues up into particles.”
The challenge of conveying the 2 into concert has enticeed “the niceest minds of your entire human race,” however to no definitive avail. At this level, Kaku says, just one conception “has survived each challenge: string theory, which is what I do for a living” — and which has attained a moderately excessive level of public consciousness, if not necessarily public beneathstanding.
Kaku breaks it down as follows: “For those who can peer into the center of an electron, you’ll see that it’s a rubber band: a tiny, tiny vibrating string, very similar to a guitar string. There’s an infinite number of vibrations, and that’s the reason we now have subatomic particles,” every variety of which corresponds to a different vibration. “A simple concept that encapsulates your entire universe” — and, crucially, a mathematically consistent one — string theory has enticeed astute professionalponents and detractors alike, the latter objecting to its untestabillity. However someday, technology could properly advance sufficiently to falsify it or not, and if not, the door opens to the possibility of time machines, wormholes, parallel universes, “issues out of The Twimild Zone.” A physicist can dream, can’t he?
For extra on this subject learn Michio Kaku’s guide The God Equation: The Quest for the Theory of Eachfactor.
Related content:
Michio Kaku Explains the Physics Behind Absolutely Eachfactor
What Is Déjà Vu? Michio Kaku Gainedders If It’s Triggered by Parallel Universes
Bohemian Gravity: String Theory Explored With an A Cappella Version of Bohemian Rhapsody
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His tasks embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the guide The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Faceguide.
