Post: String Theory

String theory (or the theory of strings) began in the late 20th century. In this blog post, I will explain everything you need to know about it: how it started, who started it, when it started, why it started, and, most importantly, what strings are.

What are strings?

Strings are an amazing field of study, and that’s what I am going to talk about. Have you wondered what’s smaller than a particle? In string theory, strings are the fundamental building blocks of the universe. These tiny, vibrating, one-dimensional strings are what everything is modeled as in the theory.

The beginning of string theory

Physicist Gabriele Veneziano started string theory in 1968 when he discovered a mathematical formula that described the strong nuclear force. People thought his theory would help unify the fundamental forces of nature. Years later, scientists discovered supersymmetry, which included new particles. This led to the name “superstring theory”.

The Problem

For string theory to be internally consistent, there have to be additional spatial dimensions. We humans move in three dimensions: up/down, left/right, and forward/backward, while strings move in multiple dimensions. Depending on the version of string theory, there could be a different number of dimensions. For example, superstring theory requires 10 dimensions, while bosonic string theory requires 26 dimensions. However, these dimensions are compactified, which means they are curled up and we can’t see them.

Conclusion

As you can see, this post contains all you need to know about string theory. From how it started, to superstring theory. This is just the beginning of the world of physics. I hope you liked reading this. Make sure to check out the other posts on this website.