Who among you believe in String Theory?

[Confuzzled4]

I'm curious as to who out there believes in it and why. I terminated my physics education with a masters degree, so I really did not probe at all into the world of GUTs, but there's such a large number of physicists who treat String Theory as a proven fact I find it interesting. I find the idea aesthetically pleasing and plausible, but I could not begin to wrap my head around the machinations.

[InbetweenDreams]

Hmm, well I have zero credentials when it comes to physics nor do I know or understand the mathematics, but I am interested in the subject... I can't say I have been convinced because I am still in wonder about our universe itself...its origin and expansion and the dark matter and dark energy that are in theory ever accelerating the expansion of the universe. I think we know enough to know we have a lot more to learn. I think it is plausible but there have been a lot of theories, some quite laughable today if you look at the things people thought of in the 17th and 18th centuries...

But in a short answer, no. I'm not totally satisfied with the theory.

[thawoods]

i think it's logical.

[ceez]

you guys make me feel really really really dumb

[InbetweenDreams]

Time is interesting, some theories suggest that you CAN travel back in time but there's a problem, why hasn't anyone popped up yet? I see one of a few possibilities, either no one has survived time travel, can't control where you end up in space or it those theories are wrong. I know thats a high level approach, although the question is can you go to the future. I mean we all know where we're going, forward in time. So begs the question is the future pre-determined or is it all random and by chance..

[thawoods]

you guys make me feel really really really dumb

u don't have to ceez, it's just a theory anyway, it's unproven, just a product of random people's assumptions...

[LJay]

I don't even know what String Theory is, though I do like thin spaghetti. I guess I'll have to do some googling. Physics in general leaves me swamped.

[InbetweenDreams]

u don't have to ceez, it's just a theory anyway, it's unproven, just a product of random people's assumptions...

It isn't an assumption, a scientific theory isn't just random speculation... There's a good deal of mathematics and research and all kinds of crap that goes over my head.

[thawoods]

well, maybe spiderman can help us answer that ...

[himself]

It isn't an assumption, a scientific theory isn't just random speculation... There's a good deal of mathematics and research and all kinds of crap that goes over my head.

I'm not sure what that means but I can tell you something. Newtonian mechanics is the study of motion using the concept of force (you add up all the forces acting on a body / system and use Newton's laws to calculate how the body reacts to those forces (and it reacts by moving or not moving)). Lagrangian mechanics is a reformulation of mechanics where you predict the motion of a body by considering a quantity called the Lagrangian (which is equal to T - V, where T is what we now call the kinetic energy of the body and V is what we now call the potential (or stored) energy of the body.) There is also Hamiltonian mechanics which works in terms of a quantity called the Hamiltonian (which is the total energy of the body). Each of these frameworks have benefits because certain problems are easier to solve in one framework than in others.

Gauge means freedom of definition. There is no one right answer for the Lagrangian. Some choices of definition make the problem simpler to solve.