Chapter 10: The Unification of Physics

It is extremely difficult to create a complete theory to describe everything that happens in the universe. Because of this, several smaller theories with limited ranges have been developed. The unification of physics describes a theory that could combine all the smaller theories into one detailed theory. Einstein spent most of his scientific career trying to find this combined theory, but as we can tell, he was unsuccessful. The discovery of the atomic structure and the uncertainty principle ended the popular idea that everything could be explained by examining the properties of the matter. However, the discovery of a unified would put an end to the uncertainty principle. The uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics states that we cannot know everything that occurs in the universe without having some amount of uncertainty about it, so it would contradict the unified theory. The strength of gravity and the quantity of the cosmological constant must be modified in order for the uncertainty principle to fit in with the theory of general relativity. In 1984, new theories called string theories emerged. These theories explain that particles have length but no dimension. The term string came form the example of an infinitely thing piece of string. The string theory was technically invented in the 1960s, and it said that particles such as protons can be described as waves on the string. Theories are constantly evolving based on knew observations and scientific discoveries. One day, we may discover a master theory that could explain all the theories in one accurate calculation. On the same note, we could also discover that such a theory cannot exist or that we do not have the correct tools to make an accurate calculation. Although we may never fully understand everything there is to know about the universe, we can try to understand all that can be measured in the areas of our knowledge.