Elegant Universe part 1 on YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UV_X2B5OK1IOn Nova's website @ PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/elegant-universe.html Transcripts, videos, more info available here.
Discussion questions for this blog post. Answer 1 or 2. Respond to 1 or 2 of your classmates.
1. What does the title of the series mean?
2. What are anomalies? What anomalies were discussed in part 2? Why are they important? What do they tell scientists?
3. What is the difference between science and philosophy? How do Observation, Experiment, & Falsification fit into the distinction? Is string theory science or philosophy or ??
4. Connect something from part 2 to our SLOs (found on your syllabus).
For 6 October
As evidence that you've watched it, you need to email me 3 key concepts from the video (including one from the last 20 minutes) AND in 2-3 sentences explain how the video relates to some concept, discussion, chapter, or SLO from our course. Email due by 9:00 a.m.
After watching this video, I feel as though string theory is a huge myster with no answers. I understand why they call it string theory because it is a concept with no evidence, the men on the show said as of now we have no way of proving its existence but with out string the universe isn't complete. Quantum mechanics is just as confusing to me. I don't understand the probabilty aspect of it, when the narrator was at the quantum cafe and asked for orange juice and got a blue drink. This video posses a lot of questions about the world and what is unknown, and my head seems to spin when we talk about these concepts that are theoritical.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you comment about string theory. In the video the scientist believes that the entire universe was made up of strands of energy which was called string theory but how can they prove that thats true or real? I find it hard that scientists are so interested in string theory but yet it is a mystery that has no evidence. Brian said the solution to the theory of the universe and everything in it was strings but again how can scientist prove that if it is just a concept?
DeleteLauren, I agree that after watching this video, string theory seems to be one big mystery that has yet to come up with an answer. This theory confused me alot but I like how they put it into perspective by using the pool table felt example. Although, it is very hard to trust in something that cannot be proven.
DeleteWhile watching this lecture, I became frustrated that both Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity cannot coexist. Why not just use one or the other in order to explain the appropriate phenomena being studied? The unification of these theories into String Theory makes it seem like these physicists are just trying to make these natural phenomena harder to understand for the average person. By using the example of the black hole, I feel like both theories could be used to make observations in respect to each theory. String theory, as stated in the video, is something that we may not ever be able to measure so why shouldn't we just use the methods of both Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity to see how the data differs from one another? The video said that General Relativity leans more on the principles of gravity and electromagnetism while Quantum Mechanics relies on electromagnetism, strong nuclear forces, and weak nuclear forces. They both rely on different pieces of data, so shouldn't they yield different results?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that at times it seems like they are trying to make things harder than they need to be. It is actually kind of funny though that while they were giving off that impression they actually said that they were looking for the "simplest solutions" to explain the phenomena that takes place in our universe. I guess that it is kind of misleading because although as things get smaller they become more fundamental, they also seem to become more out there and harder to comprehend or visualize.
DeleteI believe that the title of the series "The Elegant Universe" is a play on words for the appeal of our attempts to understand the universe. While there is much that we do not know about our universe, it is clear from our observations that the mannerisms and happens that take place in it have a rhyme and reason. Elegance could be described as the appearance of gracefulness. It is shown in the video that the scientists that are conducting this work have a special affinity for the math involved. I think that the title of the series could also be referring to their attempts to perfect the theories that could unlock the mysteries of the universe. To find simplicity in the sophisticated.
ReplyDeleteAnomalies are things that are strange or out of place - things that do not belong. It was said in the video that Dr. John Swartz was trying to deal with the problems of massless particles and tachyons in String Theory. However, it said that he overcame this when he made the realization that he should be accounting for Gravity. As a result of this, he had to drastically change his view on how large he believed these strings were. He theorized that strings were a hundred billion times smaller than atoms. He concluded that strings described gravity on the quantum level.
Anomalies tell scientists that there is something awry in the math for their theory. They are important to scientists because that can either be used to show where a theory needs work, or be used as evidence that a theory is not sufficient enough at a given time to explain its principle case.
Tommy,
DeleteYour statement was very well written and was expressed excellent. I completely agree that the title is a play on words, like that Gould article we read "Beautiful minds" or something like that. The universe is so big, with endless possibilities, we are trying to account for all these mysteries.
I feel like the title of this series "The Elegant Universe" Is trying to let viewers understand the universe more, what it is made up of, and why things are they way they are. For example in the video we learn that scientist think the universe is made up of little strings of energy know as string theory. Even though string theory is a huge mystery scientist still believe that is ultimately what our universe is made out of. The video also talked about quantum mechanics,general relativity, and electromagnetism. Everything leads into one another. First Newton unified heaven and Earth known as gravity but he did not know how it worked. Then Einstein came along and figured out how gravity worked. Maxwell then unified electricity and magnetism. So this whole video is scientist questioning one another and trying to figure out why the universe is the way it is. They each figure something out about the elegant universe and they put their ideas together to help us understand the universe a little bit better.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the purpose of the series of 'The Elegant Universe' is to help the audience get a better understanding on how the universe works. The series provides many different metaphors throughout to help describe the different theories, to help make them more relate able. 'The Elegant Universe' also explains how different theories work along with how they relate to one another.
DeleteThe movie basically emphasizes that though the universe is complex, it can be broken down into handful of equations and theories, which simplifies the universe. This simplification came from unification of theories to form broader theories. I think the title is “The Elegant Universe” because there’s elegance in simplicity.
ReplyDeleteScientists strived to unify electromagnetism and gravity. This unification was the building blocks on one underlying principle. All that remained to make a theory to explain everything was to unify electromagnetism and gravity. On the subatomic level, electromagnetism is a billion times stronger than gravity and according to quantum mechanics; gravity doesn’t work with sub atomic particles.
The third concept was that general relativity and quantum mechanics were not unified. They did not coexist peacefully. Einstein’s laws were supposed to apply everywhere and quantum mechanics were supposed to apply everywhere but they were not unified. There couldn’t be two everywheres. This caused physics to split into two. One was to to study large objects and the other was to to study atomic particles and sub-atomic particles. Studying black holes, scientists could not use both general relativity and quantum mechanics without a unifying factor. String theory is that unifying factor. String theory is the theory of everything. It simply unifies everything in the universe. Since it has not and essentially cannot be tested, the string theory is philosophical but it is very promising. The video only mentions elegance once but I believe it is trying to show that elegance is simplicity not complexity.
Sting theory is already showing us that the universe may be alot stranger than what we had previously imagined. String theory is a mystery basically stating that the universe is made up of little strings of energy. The title "The Elegant Universe" is a great title because we are trying to discover the theory of everything. in order to find the theory of everything we must combine all the laws of the universe to achieve one universal law explaining everything. in order to achieve this all our theories and laws must work in uni sent almost like a band playing a song working together in harmonious fashion. every theory working together has led us to larger and bigger theories, this is elegant because it has to be done gracefully. All theories must work together to achieve one holy grail theory that can lead to the next major advancement of mankind.
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