String Theory: a layman's explanation [joke]
cafe...@msn.com
Theory. Unfortunately, many of these books are very difficult to
comprehend; not everyone has the background necessary to appreciate
these great works. To satisfy the curiosity of these people, I have
decided to write this thread. Maybe one day, some bright young lad will
read this thread and decide to become a string theorist:
A "string" is a whole lot of bits (ones and zeroes) strung together.
For instance, 010010001011110 is a string.
Computers work by manipulating strings of bits. For instance, this
thread was written on a computer, so it too is a string of bits.
According to string theory, the laws of the universe can be described
in terms of strings. So there has to be one string which explains how
our universe works. String theorists spend their days examining every
possible string to see if it describes our universe. First, the string
theorist types into his computer a string of bits, for example,
01110101010001010000100001011100111011110.
When translated into ASCII, this string reads "The universe is a dog."
If the translation describes the universe correctly, then the string
theorist has found the grand unified theory of the universe. In our
example, since the universe is not a dog, the string theorist would
have to try again typing in another string of bits.
It is frustrating being a string theorist. Finding the string which
gives a grand unified theory of the universe is hard work, but we are
convinced that such a string exists. The mathematics is sound. We just
don't know which string it is.
Next week, I plan to give a layman's explanation of astronomy,
explaining the fundamental law of astronomy: "Twinkle, Twinkle, little
star."
Ben Zona, PhD