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Elegant Universe, The: Einstein's Dream
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Program Overview
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String's The Thing Program Overview
Welcome to the 11th Dimension Program Overview
NOVA introduces string theory and Albert Einstein's dream of
unifying the forces that underlie all phenomena in the physical
universe.
The program:
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reviews the quest for unification, the search for a single
theory that describes all the laws in the known universe.
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introduces string theory as a candidate for a unified theory and
summarizes the theory's main idea—that all matter and
forces are made of tiny strands of energy that vibrate in
different patterns.
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chronicles how, in 1665, Isaac Newton integrated the laws
governing the heavens and Earth under the theory of gravity.
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details Einstein's discovery that nothing can travel faster than
the speed of light and reveals how that finding conflicted with
Newton's laws that showed that gravity acts instantaneously
across any distance.
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explains how Einstein resolved the conflict with Newton's ideas
by showing in his general theory of relativity that gravity
travels at the speed of light.
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describes how electricity and magnetism were unified in the
mid-1800s into a single theory of electromagnetism and
illustrates how electromagnetism works and why it is hundreds of
billions of times stronger than gravity.
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chronicles Einstein's quest to unite electromagnetism with
gravity.
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relates the rise of subatomic physics in the 1920s and reviews
the development of the radical theory of quantum mechanics and
the uncertainty that rules the quantum world.
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conveys the discovery in the 1930s of two additional
forces—the strong force and the weak force—and the
eventual grouping of electromagnetism and the strong and weak
forces under the umbrella of quantum mechanics.
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discusses the challenge of unifying the force of gravity with
the forces described by quantum mechanics and expresses the need
for a unified theory to describe phenomena in the universe, such
as the depths of a black hole, which is both enormously massive
and incredibly tiny.
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concludes with the idea that while string theory could unify
general relativity and quantum mechanics, there is currently no
way of experimentally confirming its predictions.
For additional background information see:
The Science of Superstrings
Glossary
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