Arts & Sciences H101

The Elegant Universe

Winter Quarter 2001
OSU-Mansfield

This is a one-credit honors seminar exploring the startling new ideas of modern physics. In the 20th century, physicists developed two dramatically successful theories: relativity, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding the universe on the largest scales, and quantum mechanics, which provides a framework for understanding it on the smallest scales. But these theories cannot both be right: they are mutually incompatible.

The modern theory of superstrings holds out the promise of reconciling relativity and quantum theory, but it asks us to believe some bizarre ideas: everything is made of strings, and the physical universe has 10 dimensions, with six of them wrapped up so tightly that we don't ordinarily perceive them.

In this course we will explore the big ideas of string theory but avoid all technicalities. There are no prerequisites.

Professors

Our office hours will be announced in class.

Class schedule

Tuesday 3 to 4:20 (6 meetings during the quarter)
Ovalwood 463

Jan. 2 Brief organizational meeting
Jan. 9 Relativity (Chapters 1 to 3)
Jan. 16 Quantum theory (Chapters 4 and 5)
Jan. 23 No meeting
Jan. 30 Strings (Chapters 6 and 7)
Feb. 6 Hidden dimensions (Chapters 8 to 11)
Feb. 13 No meeting
Feb. 20 M-theory (Chapters 12 to 15)
Papers due
Feb. 27 No meeting
Mar. 6 Meet to discuss papers

Textbook

Our text is "The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory" by Brian Greene (Vintage paperback). We will read chapters in the book, and then discuss them in class.

Assigned paper

Each student will write a short paper (from 2 to 4 pages) on a topic suggested or approved by the instructors. These papers should follow standard rules of style and aim for clarity. Each paper should cite at least two sources, which may include web pages.

Grading

The course grade will be based on class participation and the assigned paper.

Links to web pages about string theory