Question: explain string theory

Philip Drake answered on 24 May 2021:

Well….its complicated! we think of atoms as particles and particle physics can describe most things we see and know about but there are some phenomena which are better described in quantum theory. String theory tries to link the particle world and the quantum world. Things like gravity are well understood in the particle world but not in the quantum world…..so the main push with string theory is looking for a way to describe gravity in terms of quantum effects. Another way to think about it is wave particle duality…..light can be a wave or a particle……string theory connects these two so light is not either one or the other but is simply light!