The Elegant Universe

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The Elegant Universe Written by Brian Greene 1. According to Greene, what exactly is string theory? a. According to Greene string theory is the next step in the quest for the ultimate theory. According to this string theory if we were to examine a particle, such as an electron or a proton, at such a microscopic level beyond our current maximum capacity we would find that each particle is not pointlike but is made up of a small one dimensional loop. “Like an infinitely thin rubber band, each particle contains a vibrating, oscillating, dancing filament that physicists . . . have named a string.” (Greene) 2. How did Einstein explain the concept of special relativity? b. Einstein explains that special relativity makes the claim that observers in relative motion will have different perceptions of distance and time. An example given shows us Slim and Jim, two brothers testing out Slims new car. Slim drives off at 120mph with a stopwatch running while Jim stands still where the car left off also holding a running stopwatch. According to Jim’s stopwatch it took Slim 30 seconds to run the track, but according to Slim’s stopwatch it took 29.9999999999952 seconds. This shows the affects of time dilation when traveling at enormous speeds, if Slim’s car could travel a large fraction of the speed of light this difference in time would have been much greater and noticeable to the human eye. There would be another small disagreement on measurements of length. On another test run of Slim’s car let’s say Jim uses a clever trick to measure the length of Slim’s car. Jim starts his stopwatch just as the front of Slim’s car reaches him and stops it just as the back of the car passes him. Since Jim knows that Slim is travelling at 120mph he is able to calculate the length of the car. Slim measures his car while it is stationary and concludes that it is 16

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