The Theory of Everything

One of the oldest pursuits of science has been to answer the question why. Why do things work the way they do? Why does the sun appear every morning? Why does everything that goes up on Earth come down? This pursuit to explain everything that happens in the universe developed into a pursuit for the theory of everything. Science has found that various phenomena that make up the universe are based on a common set of rules and assumptions. However it has been a difficult task to make the connections. Every time a new connection was made a major discovery catapulted science to the next level. However it seems we are now at an impasse that can only be solved by getting for the first time a truly accurate description of the universe.

The main goal of modern physicists is to unify the main physical forces under one comprehensive theory. By making the all-important connection between these four fundamental forces every phenomenon and interaction in the Universe would be explained. This is what the theory of everything is about. So far only three of the fundamental forces have been linked together. This unification is known as the grand unified theory. Grand unified theory demonstrates that electromagnetism, and the nuclear strong and weak forces contribute to one another. Electromagnetism is the result of the flow of electrons in current. The product of a flowing current is a magnetic field. All radiation is basically set of perpendicular waves of electric and magnetic fields creating the electromagnetic spectrum. The strong force and weak force deal with the interactions that bind parts of an atom together.

The unification of these different parts was based on the idea that at the most basic level they function under the same fundamental law, attraction of opposite. Each force basically works by having opposite types of matter attract each other. For the strong-weak force it’s the flavor of quarks with different flavors attracting. For electromagnetism it is positive and negative charged ions. Each has opposites that attract to create bonds and the three fundamental interactions of the physical universe.

However the main barrier to the theory of everything lies with gravity. For some reason gravity does not seem to completely agree the basic principles that govern the other fundamental forces. The reason can be seen in the equation for gravitational force. Like the other forces it involves two or more bodies’ mass and the distance between them. There the similarity ends. For some reason scientists have not been able to find a particle and “charge” that corresponds to those of the other fundamental force. This has led to the proposal of theoretical alternatives such as gravitons or strings. Each theory has merit but the problem is that current technology is not strong enough or sensitive enough to test them. If these can hypothesis can be tested it could lead to the ultimate breakthrough in physics.

We have written many articles about the Theory of Everything for Universe Today. Here’s an article about Einstein and Relativity, and here’s an article entitled, Cosmology 101: The Beginning.

If you’d like more info on the Theory of Everything, check out a nice article from MSNBC. Also, here’s a link to another article from PBS.org.

We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about the Search for the Theory of Everything. Listen here, Episode 106: The Search for the Theory of Everything.

Reference:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/theory-of-everything.html

Tagged as: grand unified theory, theory of everything