Why String Theory is Right

You can learn more about The Great Courses Plus here: Some see string theory as the one great hope for a theory of everything – that it will unite quantum mechanics and gravity and so unify all of physics into one glorious theory. Get your own Space Time t­-shirt at Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: Make Sure To Check Out The Great Courses Plus "The Great Courses Plus is currently available to watch through a web browser to almost anyone in the world and optimized for the US, UK, and Australian markets. The Great Courses Plus is currently working to both optimize the product globally and accept credit card payments globally." Help translate our videos! Previous Episode: Are Virtual Particles A New Layer of Reality? Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt O'Dowd Graphics by Luke Maroldi Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) Why has string theory been the obsession of a generation of theoretical physicists? What exactly is so compelling about tiny, vibrating strings? In our last string theory episode I talked about what these things really are, and covered some history. In short: the strings of string theory are literal strands and loops that vibrate with standing waves. Simply by changing the vibrational mode you get different particles – analogous to how different vibrational modes on guitar strings gives different notes. And, by the way, strings exist in 6 compact spatial dimensions on top of the familiar 3. Big Bang David Nicklas CoolAsCats Anton Lifshits Fabrice Eap Justin Lloyd Juan Benet Quasar Tambe Barsbay Mark Rosenthal Dean Fuqua James Flowers Vinnie Falco Hypernova Chuck Zegar Jordan Young Joseph Salomone John Hofmann Martha Hunt Matthew O’Connor Ratfeast Brent Mullins Donal Botkin Edmund Fokschaner Max Levine Alexander Rodriguez Alexey Eromenko Brandon Cook Brandon Labonte Daniel Lyons David Crane Fabian Olesen Fauzan Ardhana Greg Allen Greg Weiss Jack Frosch James Hughes JJ Bagnell Jon Folks Joseph Emison Josh Thomas Kevin Warne Malte Ubl Mark Vasile Nathan Leniz Nicholas Rose Nick Virtue Scott Gossett Shannan Catalano Shawn Azman Tommy Mogensen سلطان الخليفي