String Theory in Physics

Congratulations on a nearly understandable article about the very complex subject of string theory (Nov. 16). So apparently, in addition to the three dimensions of space plus the one of time, there are seven basic strings (types of energy) that, when combined in the millions of combinations possible, make up everything in our universe that we see and don’t see.

That would explain why there are seven basic notes in the musical universe, seven basic colors in the visual universe, and why seven is considered a sacred number in nearly all the world’s major religions. I think we might be on to something here!

DICK LARSON

Los Angeles

*

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently round the ring,

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a string!

I was hoping K.C. Cole would confront the physicists with questions we laypeople are most concerned with: Does string theory shed any light on the meaning of life, the hereafter, or the possibility of visitors from other planets (interstellar space travel)?

JOHN MARINELLI

Downey

*

Re “How Faith in the Fringe Paid Off for One Scientist,” Nov. 17: Your statements about Newton and Einstein require clarification. Newton’s gravity law is an approximation of Einstein’s general relativity theory. The former law fails at velocities that approach the speed of light. And, if John Schwarz’s and others’ work pans out, then Einstein’s law will turn out to be an approximation of Schwarz’s theory.

Any engineer could have told our high-stepping physicist colleagues that black holes couldn’t really exist as “singularities,” i.e., as objects that exist at a point. Obviously, a more general theory is needed. Einstein knew that. That’s why he worked on unification schemes for the rest of his life.

LEWIS WALDMAN PhD

La Jolla