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String Theory Quotes

Browse 77 quotes about String Theory.

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String Theory Quotes

“We have one real candidate for changing the rules; this is string theory. In string theory the one-dimensional trajectory of a particle in spacetime is replaced by a two-dimensional orbit of a string. Such strings can be of any size, but under ordinary circumstances they are quite tiny, ... a value determined by comparing the predictions of the theory for Newton's constant and the fine structure constant to experimental values.”

PhysicsString TheoryFine Structure ConstantConstants Of Nature
Author:Edward Witten
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“We can measure the fine structure constant with very great precision, but so far none of our theories has provided an explanation of its measured value. One of the aims of superstring theory is to predict this quantity precisely. Any theory that could do that would be taken very seriously indeed as a potential 'Theory of Everything'.”

PhysicsString TheoryFine Structure ConstantConstants Of Nature
Book:Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits
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“Note the way "up close and personal" profiles of professional athletes strain so hard to find evidence of a rounded human life–outside interests and activities, values beyond the sport. We ignore what's obvious, that most of this straining is farce. It's farce because the realities of top-level athletics today require an early and total commitment to one area of excellence. An ascetic focus. A subsumption of almost all other features of human life to one chosen talent and pursuit. A consent to live in a world that, like a child's world, is very small.”

SportsExcellenceAthleticsString TheoryDavid Foster Wallace
Author:David Foster Wallace
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“Streams of brown, soapy water ran from him toward the drain. It circled there before falling in. He closed his eyes tightly so that the soap on his head wouldn’t burn them. “Here’s a little brain exercise for you, Azure: I used to wonder where all the water goes,” said Neela, sitting on a stool outside the tub. “It doesn’t just disappear into nothingness. It needs to go somewhere. But we don’t have normal sewers like the ground districts do. So, what do you think happens to it?” “I-I d-d-don’t know…” “There are pipes beneath us we can’t see. Just because we can’t see the pipes doesn’t mean that the pipes aren’t there. They’re there, alright. They have to be. Winding and weaving. We see their effects, otherwise we’d be swimming in filth. Some come from our sinks. Some come from our tubs. Some come from our toilets. But they’re all connected somewhere. All that dirty water is filtered out and treated somewhere. Some giant collection pool.”

Faith In GodExistence Of GodCreationismMultiverseString TheoryBig Bang TheoryBig Bang Theory In CreationWhite Hole Theory
Book:The Destroyer of Worlds: An Answer to Every Question
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“As string theorists march on in their quest for the theory of everything, whilst also leaving a trail of mathematical gems along the way, some traditional physicists were outraged: “Is physics no longer rooted in observations of nature? Or is this theology?” I couldn’t help but notice a striking parallel with the way mathematics became detached from physics during the nineteenth century and, in particular, the outrage that accompanied Cantor’s transfinite set theory and Hilbert’s non-constructive proofs. Was the kind of mathematics that could never be exhibited with real objects actual mathematics, or was it theology? With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that the mathematics flourished like never before during the twentieth century. One can only hope the same thing happens with string theory in the decades to come.”

PhysicsString TheoryTheoretical PhysicsString Theorists
Author:Xi Yin
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“What I do for living, working on something called string theory which we think may answer the fundamental question: Are there other universes? Can you go through a black hole? Can you warp the fabric of space and time and meet your mother before you were born? These are all questions that in principle string theory should be able to answer.”

ThinkingShouldMayAbleMotherUniverseBlackBornSpaceAnswersPrinciplesTheoryFundamentalsHolesStringsFabricTime And SpaceBlack HoleWarpString Theory
Author:Michio Kaku
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“String theory has the potential to show that all of the wondrous happenings in the universe - from the frantic dance of subatomic quarks to the stately waltz of orbiting binary stars; from the primordial fireball of the big bang to the majestic swirl of heavenly galaxies - are reflections of one, grand physical principle, one master equation.”

ShowsBigsUniverseStarsPrinciplesMastersTheoryHappeningsReflectionHeavenlyStringsGalaxyEquationsBangsWondrousMajesticFranticBinarySwirlsWaltzString TheoryQuarks
Book:The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
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“String theory is the most developed theory with the capacity to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics in a consistent manner. I do believe the universe is consistent, and therefore I do believe that general relativity and quantum mechanics should be put together in a manner that makes sense.”

ShouldBelieveTogetherUniverseTheoryCapacityMake SenseConsistentStringsQuantumMechanicRelativityQuantum MechanicsString TheoryGeneral Relativity
Author:Brian Greene
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“One thing that definitely did calculate properly for me was the mathematics that makes sense every day, no matter how I look at it, I can't get around it. I try to get around it, I keep trying to find one plus one is not two, somehow. I can't. People can talk about string theory, parallel realities, different dimensions, it's still one plus one is two, baby.”

PeopleTryingLooksStillsI CanTwoDifferentMatterRealityOne ThingTheoryBabyMathematicsMake SenseDimensionsStringsPlusParallelsKeep TryingString TheoryDifferent Dimensions
Author:RZA
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“Superstring theories provide a framework in which the force of gravity may be united with the other three forces in nature: the weak, electromagnetic and strong forces. Recent progress has shown that the most promising superstring theories follow from a single theory. For the last generation, physicists have studied five string theories and one close cousin. Recently it has become clear that these five or six theories are different limiting cases of one theory which, though still scarcely understood, is the candidate for superunification of the forces of nature.”

MayStillsDifferentLastsThreeStrongForceUnitedCasesClearFiveProgressGenerationsTheorySixUnderstoodWeakCandidatesStringsGravityCousinPhysicistFrameworkForces Of NatureString Theory
Author:Edward Witten
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“Once again, my colleague Stephen Hawking has upset the apple cart. The event horizon surrounding a black hole was once though to be an imaginary sphere. But recent theories indicate that it may actually be physical, maybe even a sphere of fire. But I don't trust any of these calculations until we have a full-blown string theory calculation, since Einstein's theory by itself is incomplete.”

MayBlackFireEventsTheoryHolesUpsetApplesStringsHorizonSpheresImaginaryColleaguesCalculationsIncompleteDon't TrustCartsBlack HoleEvent HorizonString Theory
Author:Michio Kaku
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“Combining quantum entanglement with wormholes yields mind boggling results about black holes. But I don't trust them until we have a theory of everything which can combine quantum effects with general relativity. i.e. we need to have a full blown string theory resolve this sticky question.”

NeedsMindBlackResultsEffectsTheoryHolesStringsResolveYieldQuantumRelativityDon't TrustCombiningBlack HoleStickyString TheoryEntanglementMind BogglingGeneral RelativityWormholes
Author:Michio Kaku
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“Often, when I want to read something that is satisfying to me as theology, what I actually read is string theory, or something like that - popularizations, inevitably, of scientific cosmologies - because their description of the scale of things and the intrinsic, astonishing character of reality coincides very beautifully with the most ambitious theology. It is thinking at that scale, and it is thinking that is invested with meaning in a humanly evocative form. That's theology.”

ThinkingWantCharacterRealityFormTheoryScalesTheologyDescriptionStringsSatisfyingAmbitiousAstonishingCosmologyVery BeautifulString Theory
Author:Marilynne Robinson
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“The beauty of string theory is the metaphor kind of really comes very close to the reality. The strings of string theory are vibrating the particles, vibrating the forces of nature into existence, those vibrations are sort of like musical notes. So string theory, if it's correct, would be playing out the score of the universe.”

IfsKindRealityWould BeUniverseForceExistenceTheoryNotesMusicalMetaphorScoreStringsParticlesVibrationsForces Of NatureString TheoryMusical Notes
Author:Brian Greene
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“General relativity is in the old Newtonian framework where you predict what will happen, not the probability of what will happen. And putting together the probabilities of quantum mechanics with the certainty of general relativity, that's been the big challenge and that's why we have been excited about string theory, as it's one of the only approaches that can put it together.”

Has BeensBigsHappensTogetherChallengesTheoryApproachExcitedCertaintyStringsQuantumProbabilityMechanicFrameworkRelativityQuantum MechanicsBig ChallengesString TheoryGeneral Relativity
Author:Brian Greene
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“The Big Bang has gone away, but as far as Super String, that is suspicious for me. It all starts out with the notion of Big Bang, which if it were true, starts out with incredibly high temperatures. So they think [we] need to get these high temperatures for this broken symmetry; all this broken symmetry reunited, and we do not have enough energy in the whole galaxy to get to those temperatures, to prove their point. To me, that is the single flaw in Super String theory.”

IfsThinkingNeedsEnoughWholeBigsEnergyGoneTheoryBrokenProveNotionStringsFlawsGalaxyBangsSuspiciousTemperatureSymmetryString TheoryReunitedGone Away
Author:Edgar Mitchell
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