The Theory of Everything

Einstein died while trying to solve a theory of everything, that is, where the rules that apply to quantum physics don’t apply to others such as atomic physics, nuclear physics, particle physics, plasma physics, electromagnetism, etc. The rules for one don’t always work well with the other. This is confusing since all matter should have a common relationship to one another.

A few years ago some very smart and somewhat hopeful people came up with a simple idea called the String Theory that appeared to have a unifying answer that made it all work together. This described the universe as occupying several dimensions of space at the same time as all our atoms were vibrating like a string. For all of this to work out in the math, it was suggested that 11 different dimensions had to exist.

Overlooked at the time were another group of people who suggested a different idea called the Super Gravity theory. This was similar in the fact that it unified all the laws of physics but suggested 10 dimensions were required for this to happen.

Both of these theories had a few small holes in them that needed to be filled. When String theory started to fall apart, Super Gravity took the center stage as a focus on the answer. Since Physics, like all other science, requires (or at least longs for) some proof of theory, this left both efforts in the grey, both filled in the holes but neither could be proven.

Eventually they looked at Super Gravity again and added an 11th dimension to the math. This not only worked, but also worked very well in theory. We have some good idea’s on how everything works nicely together but still, hard to ever prove. This sounds a little convienent but remember black holes were only a theory at one time as well. Steven Hawking himself suggested there wasn’t such a thing but today we can prove they exist. When Einstein postulated their existance, he was looking only at a mathmatical explanation.

Here’s where it gets even weirder. You know, as if the other dimensions weren’t enough to wrap your brain around. Something had to be figured out about gravity in this theory. It seemed it was a much weaker force than once thought. It holds us to the planet, true, but even fighting against the gravity of an entire planet, you can stand up. So it was suggested that our gravity was leaking into one of the other dimensions. This didn’t add up in the math. When someone got the idea that maybe gravity from another dimension was leaking into ours, it worked very well.

So given time (yet another dimension), does this mean that too much gravity will be leaked into our own reality causing us great effort to walk around, stand up, or climb stairs?

Yet another thing that keeps me up at night.