Preface
Fist of all, I honestly did not mean the title as a pun. It happens to be an accurate description of what this post is. Consider this post a precursor to my actual post on string theory. Though I may address it, I don’t intend to discuss the details of string theory here. This post will serve as a brief introduction to post-Newtonian physics. It is important to understand some key ideas before we delve into string theory.
Second, I realize that this is a massive post. I don’t expect many of you to read it in one sitting, if anyone decides to read it at all. If you do decide to read any part of this feel free to ask me any questions if a concept isn’t clear to you. I can’t promise that I can convey it better, but I will try.
Before I start, I must give credit where credit is due. Though there are other sources where I have learned about string theory, special relativity, general relativity, and quantum mechanics most of my understanding on these subjects comes from Roger Penrose’s
Road to Reality, Brian Greene’s
The Elegant Universe, and Stephen Hawking’s
A Brief History of Time.
I want to reiterate that my understanding on these topics is primitive, and there is a (strong) possibility that some of what I post below may contain some inaccuracies. For a better understanding of these topics I strongly recommend reading Greene’s book. For a mathematical foundation on these topics, Penrose’s
Road to Reality is excellent. If you aren’t at graduate level math yet, don’t be alarmed. Penrose’s book will walk you through all the mathematics you need to know, although a basic understanding of calculus will be extremely helpful.
Though I have a lot of interest in biology and chemistry, I find physics to be the most fascinating of all sciences. I consider it to be the “purest” form of science. Physicists attempt to model the universe through mathematical equations and manipulate these equations to predict and rationalize new observations.
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