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julie julie
wrote...
12 years ago
My teachers have been telling me that all matter is made up of tiny particles; but now some people say that all matter is made up of tiny "strings" corresponding with each other. So which is it? How did they even come up with the "string theory" ?
Is the string theory and particle theory of matter the same thing? Does the string theory come from the particle theory of matter? LOL I am such a retard!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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wrote...
12 years ago
There is no such thing as "particle theory".  But the standard particle model does list three families of fermions and one of bosons.  These are populated with sub atomic particles: quarks, electrons, neutrinos, photons, gluons, W and Z particles, and, perhaps, gravitons.  Each and all of them are treated as dimensionless points in all the theories and equations that employ them.

That poses a problem when one tries to apply the general theory of relativity, the one about gravity, to the point particles.  As we approach zero size, the size of these points, the equations sort of blow up.  They go to infinity at a place called a singularity.   So these point particles are no good when using the general theory of relativity on them.  But strings are good.

A string is an infinitely thin very short vibrating piece of energy.  And, according to the way each one vibrates, they have the same characteristics as the point particles of the standard model... except one.  They have length; so the general theory of relativity does not run into that infinity at singularity problem that the point particles give rise to.  So the strings look and behave like the standard sub atomic particles, according to how the strings vibrate, but they avoid the singularities of point particles.

Strings and particles are not the same thing.  But they represent the same set of fermions and bosons found on the standard model.  In a sense, they are two different views of the same stuff.

Be aware that string theory has not been validated through falsifiable testing.  This means, at best, it is still a hypothesis.  Until such time as they actually observe evidence of strings in tests, string theory will remain an educated guess... a hypothesis.
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