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The Elegant Universe (PBS)
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Send message Joined: 22 Aug 05 Posts: 100 Credit: 6,864 RAC: 0 |
PBS The Elegant Universe Theirs a clip on this show that talks about a looped string sealing a tear in subspace, I am curious about the tube that drags behind the string. What causes it? How long does that tube stretch? Can someone point me in the right direction to get these questions answered? Ernie S Team Art Bell God Bless |
Send message Joined: 16 Dec 05 Posts: 18 Credit: 1,523,201 RAC: 0 |
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/ |
Send message Joined: 22 Aug 05 Posts: 100 Credit: 6,864 RAC: 0 |
PBS The Elegant Universe Well, this is where the power of strings comes in. Strings calm the chaos. And as a single string dances through space, it sweeps out a tube. The Tube can act as a bubble that surrounds the tear. A protective shield with profound implications. Strings make it possible for space to rip. What is the tube? What causes it? How long does it stretch? |
Send message Joined: 22 Aug 05 Posts: 100 Credit: 6,864 RAC: 0 |
PBS The Elegant Universe |
Send message Joined: 22 Aug 05 Posts: 100 Credit: 6,864 RAC: 0 |
Strings calm the chaos. And as a single string dances through space, it sweeps out a tube. The tube can act as a bubble that surrounds the tear. A protective shield with profound implications. Strings make it possible for space to rip. Well, the 'tube' is what happens when the 'string' vibrates back and forth very rapidly. Picture a piece of a rubber band stretched between two fixed posts, or maybe better, picture a guitar: when you pluck a string, if you look closely, you'll see that it not only vibrates back and forth, but it is also vibrating up and down at the same time. So rather than looking like a flat ribbon as it vibrates, it looks more like a tube, even though you plucked it in only one direction. Brian Greene was explaining how the 'tube' might allow a surface with one shape (say a plate or saucer), to morph into a different surface (say a doughnut, which has a hole through it even though the surface is still what mathematicians call 'continuous'). How might a hole form in the surface of the shape without it tearing? A tear in the surface, for various reasons, doesn't fit well with either maths or physics. So I think Brian Greene was making a point that the strings of 'String Theory' might keep the fabric patched while it morphs around a tear, specifically regarding the situation where there's lots of mass in a very small volume of 3D space, like near a black hole, I think the rationale being that a wormhole is possible, in turn making possible the connection of points in space that are otherwise far apart in distance and/or time. So what causes it and how far does it stretch? The strings vibrate in various patterns, to account for the various particles in the Standard Model, and according to the show, if you enlarged an atom to the size of the solar system, then these strings would be about the size of a tree, an eleven dimensional tree, so try to picture not an empty solar system, but millions forests stacked on top of each other, forest as far as the eye can see, for all the trees. :) I hope I interpreted the show correctly A gentleman (ChipperQ) from Einstein@home helped me with the same question, I thought I'd share it with you. Ernie Professional guitarist Team Art Bell God Bless |
Send message Joined: 22 Aug 05 Posts: 100 Credit: 6,864 RAC: 0 |
Two more questions for crunchers. From Pt. 3 of The Elegant Universe. SAVAS DIMOPOULOS: Consider a pool table, a very large pool table. Think of the surface of the pool table as representing our three-dimensional universe, although it is just two-dimensional, and think of the billiard balls as representing atoms and other particles that the universe is made out of. BRIAN GREENE: So here's the wild idea: the atoms and particles that make up stuff in the world around us will stay on our particular membrane, our slice of the universe just as the billiard balls will stay on the surface of the pool table—unless you're a really bad pool player. But whenever the balls collide, there is something that always seeps off the table, sound waves. That's why I can hear the collision. Now, the idea is that gravity might be like the sound waves, it might not be confined to our membrane. It might be able to seep off our part of the universe. Question 1) Wind can effect a sound wave! Can thier be a force that effects the gravitons journey as it leaves our Universe membrane? For years, we concentrated on strings that were closed loops, like rubber bands. But after M-theory, we turned our attention to other kinds. Now we think that everything we see around us, like matter and light, is made of open-ended strings, and the ends of each string are tied down to our three-dimensional membrane. But closed loops of string do exist, and one kind is responsible for gravity. It's called a graviton. With closed loops, there are no loose ends to tie down, so gravitons are free to escape into the other dimensions, diluting the strength of gravity and making it seem weaker than the other forces of nature. Question 2) If Matter = grounded strings and gravity= looped strings What are the other kinds of looped strings? What else leaves our Membrane? Always an honor to learn from my fellow crunchers! Thank you Ernie S God Bless |
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