h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well?
Come on!
Answers on a postcard.

Try the article on String Theroy. It may not be a Unifying Theroy of Physics yet, but it's the closest you're likly to get.

I would prefer a unifying Law rather than a unifying Theory. Anyone can come up with a theory, but a theory doesn't necessarily need to be right. I can give you my unifying theory of physics if you like:

Life, the universe, and everything, is wierd.

So true, so true

What about:
Nothing is happy where it is at the moment

(this explains gravity, magnetism and wales if you think about it)

How about:

No, not like that, try it the other way.

Which doesn't explain very much, actually... now I come to think about it.

26199

The most bizarre thing about the G.U.T. is that it appears, as much as I hate to say it, that Plato may have been right about what should constitute knowledge. Plato always looked down on observational and empirical knowledge, feeling it was inferior to proper forms of knowledge, such as mathematics and ethics, which could be formulated through thought alone. The most bizarre thing I found in reading 'A Brief History of Time' was that Hawkings constantly complains that such and such a number is known only by observation - the hope is that a G.U.T. would remove this need - the theory itself should define the numbers involved.

All very interesting, especially philosophically...

Practicality always gets in the way of a good theory. To this end, it's best to avoid theories that can be proven (physically measured, quantified, etc.) in practice. My personal inclination would therefore be to consider a superset of G.U.T in a metaphysical context, say the religious realm, and derive the G.U.T as a component of a higher relationship. So once we determine who is God?, What is the right religion?, etc. The G.U.T should fall out nicely.

Message from GOD.
WRONG

I don't know much about a Unitized theory, but if you want to know about Quantum Mechanics i know a good Volkswagen guy.
ted

Quantum theory is about half of the G.U.T.. The thing that a G.U.T. hopes to do, AFAIK, is to unite quantum theory for small things and gravity on a large scale...

See, the way i see it, a unified thory has to couple quantum mechanics with relativity.
But, the cool thing about sub atomic particles is that, according to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, particles only really exist when someone observes them.
Extrapolate outwards and you can leap to the conclusion that the world only really exists coz we observe it, making this guide the ultimate act of creation.

Cool huh?

Very cool... of course, heisenberg also mentioned in that principle that you can't be sure of a particle's exact location and exact velocity. If you extrapolate that outwards, if we are on a schedule, and have planned writing for h2g2, we actually could be writing for the wrong website, thus, this might not be quite the ultimate act of creation. Tripping on acid, however, could be considered among the ultimate acts of change...

Either those, or it's a good explanation for why speedometers are always off by 2-3 mph....

Anyway, back to the good ol' GUT discussion....

Actually, no. Heisenburg's Uncertanty Principle states that you can't know the exact velocity and the exact speed of a particle exactly at the exact same time. That's all it says

Yes, but the reason that you cant know both position and velocity is that once you observe one, the other becomes increasingly uncertain. Thus it is the act of observation that affects the outcome.
Like with Schrodinger's cat. Until you observe the outcome, the cat is neither dead nor alive. It is observation that fixes things into existence. Until observed, things only have a 'tendency to exist' within a certain wave packet.
Mind you, tripping is one of the best ways to experience a unified universe...

The essential problem of uniting quantum theory and gravity was pointed out to me in a very clear and easy to understand way today. Mr Edwards put it very clearly, "The problem is that in order to use quantum theory you have to assume that a mass is a particle of infinitely small size, and once you do that, then when you consider it's large mass in a small point that is infinitely dense with gravity you get a black hole." Isn't that /nice/?

Hey I have a unifying theory

x=x

Aaaaaahhhhh....do you see?

Very quantum.

Mathmaster, Heisen etc etc states that U cannot know both velocity and position! Believe me , I Know.

Brillant theory!

But only if you really believe that the x on the right is the same as the x on the left How about

x

OK, I know, not so much a theory as a statement. I just wanted to mark this thread in case it got interesting again