• Question: what is the string theory made of

    Asked by azazaa to Arlene, Colin, David, Eugene, Paul on 13 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Paul Higgins

      Paul Higgins answered on 13 Nov 2012:


      String theory is made of … Strings! Strings, and lots and lots of math. Hard math. Math so hard that loads of mathematicians have been stuck on it for a few decades. But if it wasn’t hard then it wouldn’t be worth the mathematicians time to work on it. Anyway, strings are super tiny (like WAY smaller than an electron!) vibrating bits of… something. Energy I suppose. Different vibrations mean that the strings have different energies, and represent different particles (like electrons, protons, neutrons, etc.). One of the problems with string theory is that so far we can’t test any of its predictions. We don’t have a microscope good enough to actually see a string.

Comments