Michio Kaku Explains String Theory | Big Think

Michio Kaku Explains String Theory
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The co-founder of Field String Theory explains why the universe has 11 dimensions rather than any other number.
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MICHIO KAKU:

Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of string field theory, and is one of the most widely recognized scientists in the world today. He has written 4 New York Times Best Sellers, is the science correspondent for CBS This Morning and has hosted numerous science specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery/Science Channel. His radio show broadcasts to 100 radio stations every week. Dr. Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York (CUNY), where he has taught for over 25 years. He has also been a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, as well as New York University (NYU).
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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: Why are there only 11 dimensions in the universe rather than something higher? (Submitted by John Menon)

Michio Kaku: I work in something called String Theory, that’s what I do for a living. In fact, that’s my day job. I’m the co-founder of String Field Theory, one of the main branches of String Theory. The latest version of String Theory is called M-Theory, “M” for membrane. So we now realize that strings can coexist with membranes. So the subatomic particles we see in nature, the quartz, the electrons are nothing but musical notes on a tiny vibrating string.

What is physics? Physics is nothing but the laws of harmony that you can write on vibrating strings. What is chemistry? Chemistry is nothing but the melodies you can play on interacting vibrating strings. What is the universe? The universe is a symphony of vibrating strings. And then what is the mind of God that Albert Einstein eloquently wrote about for the last 30 years of his life? We now, for the first time in history have a candidate for the mind of God. It is, cosmic music resonating through 11 dimensional hyperspace.

So first of all, we are nothing but melodies. We are nothing but cosmic music played out on vibrating strings and membranes. Obeying the laws of physics, which is nothing but the laws of harmony of vibrating strings. But why 11? It turns out that if you write a theory in 15, 17, 18 dimensions, the theory is unstable. It has what are called, anomalies. It has singularities. It turns out that mathematics alone prefers the universe being 11 dimensions.

Now some people have toyed with 12 dimensions. At Harvard University, for example, some of the physicists there have shown that a 12-dimensional theory actually looks very similar to an 11-dimensional theory except it has two times, double times rather than one single time parameter. Now, what would it be like to live in a universe with double time? Well, I remember a movie with David Niven. David Niven played a pilot, who was shot down over the Pacific, but the angels made a mistake, he was not supposed to die that day. And so the angels brought him back to life and said, “Oh, sorry about that. We killed you off by accident; you were not supposed to die today.”

So in a great scene, David Niven then walks through a city where time has stopped. Everyone looks like this. And there’s David Niven just wandering around looking at all these people. That’s a world with double time. David Niven has one clock, but everyone else has a separate clock and these two clocks are perpendicular to each other. So if there’s a double time universe, you could walk right into a room, see people frozen in time, while you beat to a different clock. That’s a double time universe.

Now this is called F-Theory, “F” for father, the father of strings. It’s not known whether F-Theory will survive or not; however, M-Theory in 11 dimension is the mother of all strings. And that theory works perfectly fine. So to answer your question, in other dimensions, dimensions beyond 11, we have problems with stability, these theories are unstable, they decay back down to 11 dimensions, they have what are called anomalies, singularities, which kill an ordinary theory. So the mathematics itself forces you to 11 dimensions.

Also because this is a Theory of Everything, there’s more room in higher dimensions to put all the forces together. When you put gravity, electromagnetism and the nuclear force together, four dimensions is not big enough to accommodate all these forces. When you expand to 11 dimensions, bingo, everything forms perfectly well.

[samichloricacid]

Me at school: can't understand how magnets work
At home: learning string theory

[Mohit-jlkl]

Me : can't leave my blanket
Michio Kaku : we have to leave the universe

[elliegarcia]

I’m too high for this, I’ll be back tomorrow.

[Wallbreaker]

Don't worry guys, we have equations.

[flobanez]

I can listen to Michio Kaku for hours.

[denisherlock]

I just realized that Alice in Wonderland is more scientifically advanced than we ever tought

[brandonogden]

I love these theoretical leaps this guy takes from a to z. He really gets down to, "Well, here's what you want to know if it's possible - here's what we DO know about it."

[astrostar]

"Far more energy is required than a simple DeLorean with plutonium"

Damn :(

[Mohit-jlkl]

Me at school : can't learn work energy theorm
Me at YouTube: learning sting Theory




Seems legit

[drazna]

God said "the four dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric second rank tensor equals zero, " and there was light

[Mohit-jlkl]

No body :
Literally No body :





Michio Kaku : We have to leave the universe

[dentistde]

As it was mentioned before below, at least he takes the time to explain these things to people. These are not just theories that have no evidence whatsoever. It took time, effort and lots of equations that have been work on by physicists trying to get an explanation for these things. Although it may sound crazy at first, that's what science is all about, proving if something is true or not depending on the evidence presented.

[codywiebe]

what I find funny, is most of the people commenting on here, most likely have at maximum, 4 years post secondary education. this man giving us a lecture, has 13+ years of education. in physics, engineering, particle theory and ultimately theoretical physics. the man built a particle accelerator in high school for a science fair project for goodness sakes, with the hopes of creating anti-matter. he also created light-cone string field theory, following Mandelstam's light-cone formulation of string theory.

if there is any reason you don't understand what he's talking about. it may be the thousands of hours he has over you in physics of any capacity.

[herzali]

I'm here pretending to be a smart guy.

[StaticBlaster]

I love this guy. His enthusiasm for science and math is contagious.

[InkubusGames]

I could listen this man all the time and he would always be interesting to listen.

On a side note when talking about space getting colder - as if he saying "Well we should pack our bags and leave, summertime here I come!"

[sky]

In theory, in-fact I am almost sure, it is possible to bend and distort space-time using multy-layered frequencies. Kind of like running water in front of a speaker whilst playing high and low frequency sounds. I guess you could fire key frequencies to compress space-time, ie; (bringing distance closer) and then emmit other frequencies simultaneously to steer the bend/curve of space time. Precision waves inside waves inside other waves generated from a specially wound torus coil. If wound correctly, the 8star torus coils can also produce their own energy by attracting positively charged ions due to hexagons in the coil wind. These hexagons as you know already provide natural levitation to insects such as beetles and butterflies due to the construction of their shells/wings under a microscope... aka (Bio-Levitation)

[yongtaufooboy]

I like that Youtube is an area where people with little physics education can simply "reject" physics conjectures and theories because they "don't make sense".

[Ethan-qecr]

The laws of physics might vary between universes meaning that the laws of physics might be different in other universes.

[AlbertYu_a]

At least he can explain very complex things in a way that you can understand. You believe it or not, it is just a different thing.