iQueens

• iQueens
• Life @ Queens
  
• Rabbithole Feature: String Theory
  

Yes, today there is going to be a rabbithole feature.

Anyways, I was reading one of Queen's University's more serious weekly papers (ie not the Golden Words), and read that Queen's has decided to post selected media, including podcasts of lectures, videos of events, and video samples of episodes taken from selected media (videos, local shows) that have involved Queen's in some way on Apple's iTunes website. While Queen's is not the first University in North America to implement such a system, it is the first on in Canada to.
As I was reading this I started to think that by doing this, Queen's is unintentionally promoting Apple and their associated products in some way by hosting their media or making it available through iTunes. This ponderance almost brings me to the thought of the chicken and the egg situation:
Before I heard of Queen's doing this, I noticed how much of Apple's products existed on Queen's campus already. It seems almost everywhere I turn I see an Apple product, I think at between 1/3 and 1/2 of all Queen's students have an iPod or its variants on mp3 portable media (including the iPod, Mini, Nano, and Video); I have a Mini, but I got it before arriving at Queen's and discovered that everyone had one. In addition, probably half of the students in my classes have varying versions of Apple's laptop, the iMac or Macbook (sp?). So maybe Queen's has noticed this too and has decided to cash in/buy into the Apple product craze because of this.
On the other hand, if Queen's decision to do this is independent of the Apple media present on campus, then this might be a move to promote and increase the use of Apple products in a rather subtle way. I say subtle because all one needs to get the media off of iTunes is to log onto the iTunes website (I think it's by downloading Apple's [free] iTunes software and accessing the store through it), the media can then be transferred to compatible media. However, I believe there exists media that would only be compatible with Apple products outside iTunes. I'd have to check this out further.

Life at Queen's has been/is busy, but fun. For one thing, it's different than high school, or St. Lawrence, in that the class sizes are much bigger, and farther apart in terms of classroom location. A week or two ago I finished midterm season and am now starting Finals season. I am in the final week of class, so things are wrapping up with lectures and projects. In fact, I have my final project meeting in about 45 minutes, where we work on our final report for the project. Next week will be busy for me even though I have no classes. That will probably be because I'll be studying like crazy for the exams I have (rouighly a week and a half of them) that start on the 7th. I have 2 saturday exams two thursdays and a monday, so they are fairly spread out with a day or two in between them and 5 or 6 days before the first one starts. You'd think after all this time I'd miss being home in the west end for a while, but after living downtown for months now (since Aug 1), I no longer care that much about it. Don't get me wrong though; it's nice to go home after a while to visit the parents and spend time with them, but I've pretty much adjusted to life and friends down here. It's...different. It's nice.

Rabbit Hole Feature: String Theory.

Yes, there hasn't been a RHF here for a while and there should be one now. In the latter part of last week I was talking with some friends about scientific/philosophic theories about life and existence, and they started talking about what is known as String Theory. I'd briefly read a blurb about it in the Toronto Star but didn't really think about what it actually was. Upon discussing such a thing with others about it, they mentioned that it was a theory on what makes up everything. There was a 3 hour mini-series about it that aired on PBS a while ago but the entire documentary was available to watch online at the Nova Website. So taking a break from work on the weekend I decided to watch the first 2 hours (each hour at a separate time).
It all began with Sir Isaac Newton (the guy who had the apple fall on his head). He started describing the force of gravity. Later on, in the early 20th century, a fellow by the name of Albert Einstein was reviewing it too, but with a different purpose. At the time, he had been working in a patent office, but he was trying to do figure out why gravity did what it did (Newton knew how it worked, but didn't know why). Finally, Einstein came up with the famous theory of relativity to explain how a body of mass acts in relation to other bodies of varying masses. Celestial bodies, like the Sun, earth, and other planets have their own gravitational pull that act on the surrounding areas of space-time (yes, we clearly live in a world of 4 dimensions: 3 being the 3 dimensions of length, width, and depth and the last being time). This theoretical model worked in describing physical motion and, when combined with Newton's 3 laws, were enough to help launch a rocket into space.
The theory of gravity however, had a glaring flaw: It did not work when describing things on an atomic or subatomic level. To explain this, scientists around the same time as Einstein has developed a branch of physics known as Quantum Mechanics. Quantum mechanics described physical motion of particles using 3 different types of forces, separate from gravity: Electromagnetism, strong force, and weak force. These three were able to describe the motion of subatomic particles relatively accurately.
Just one problem. The theory of Quantum Mechanics and Gravity were essentially describing the motion of the same thing, relative motion of bodies, but on different scales. Einstein was looking for a Unified Theory that fit both theories together and could describe why the two bodies acted differently. Sadly, Einstein died before he could see his dream to completion.

However, in the mid 20th century, the string theory began to emerge. This theory uses the variants on the vibrations of a string to describe the varying nature of bodies, being analogous to the strings of a cello when bowed and how different lengths and vibratory orientations of it produce different notes. Similarily, if a string vibrates in a different way (even the opposite way), it could produce different properties. These supposed strings are said to be some tens of thousands of times smaller than the quarks (which are particles that make up the protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom) and are basically very very tiny strings of pure energy.

Imagine that you are viewing a lamp post from, say 50 metres away. To you it would look like a 2 dimensional line, having a length and a width. But if you zoomed in, you'd realize that it actually had depth as well; you could see that it also has a depth, going away and towards you. A third dimension. Now, from 50m away you might say, "I can still see that it has a depth", but at a distance like that you have to at least admit that it can give the appearance of being 2 dimensional. Applying that same type of thinking to these itsy bitsy strings, it isn't had to theorize that these strings may possibly consist of more than the 2 dimensions that we see them in (possibly 3). This part is a little hard to wrap your head around (it was for me so explaining it may not make sense), but imagine that the string exists not in 2 dimensions, not 3, but as many as six different dimensions, vibrating uniquely in each of these dimensions. We already live in a world of 4 dimensions. Imagine six.
It is theorized that the variation of the vibrations these strings are responsible for the development of literally everything that exists, not just matter, but the defining moments for what holds it together, including the weak nuclear force, for example, that holds the nucleus of an atom together. This force has to be a constant and extremely precise. Too strong and the atom would collapse upon itself and everything as we know it would cease to exist. Poof, bam, *pop*. Too weak, and it the bonds holding the nucleus together would break and atom would not be able to maintain cohesion, dispersion. Once again, everything ceases to exist. So these strings, and their vibrations, dictate the constants by which all other atoms are created, the forces holding them together, the atoms themselves, and their combinations.
Thus, if they can define virtually everything in the expanse of space-time from the smallest quark, to the largest celestial body (which is composed of many many quarks), maybe its possibly to imagine that these strings can define how things operate on a subatomic level and on a macroscopic level.

Several minor problems.

• These strings may only remain a theoretical idea because they are theorized to be so small that nobody can see them (roughly 1/10000th of the size of an electron)
  
• There are 5 differing, valid arguments on the nature of them, including whether or not they are open ended or closed, like a rubber band
  

I still haven't watched hour 3 yet so the entire theory is still not clear; apparently there exists as many as 11 dimensions with this theory. Fascinating stuff to watch at the very least.

Out.