Quotes by Edward Witten - Page 1

M stands for Magic, Mystery, or Matrixaccording to taste
Edward Witten / Physicist
Magic
Mystery
Taste
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It's an exaggeration to say that I came up with M-theory.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Exaggeration
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We know a lot of things, but what we don't know is a lot more.
Edward Witten / Physicist
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Im actually, for the most part, a complete agnostic politically.
Edward Witten / Physicist
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I don't care about movies. I tend to play badminton once a week.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Movies
Badminton
Care
Don't Care
Week
Once
Once A Week
Tend
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I'm actually, for the most part, a complete agnostic politically.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Agnostic
Complete
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There is a difference between knowing what is true and knowing why it is true
Edward Witten / Physicist
Differences
Knowing
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You enter a completely new world where things aren't at all what you're used to.
Edward Witten / Physicist
New World
Used
World
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String theory is 21 st century physics that fell accidentally into the 20th century.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Century
Physics
Strings
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Regardless of any deviations, it was clear I was supposed to end up in math and physics.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Math
Physics
Regardless
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1/r^2 has a nasty singularity at r=0, but it did not bother Newton-the Moon is far enough.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Moon
Nasty
Newton
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If you are a researcher, you are trying to figure out what the question is as well as what the answer is.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Researcher
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One of the basic things about a string is that it can vibrate in many different shapes or forms, which gives music its beauty.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Beauty
Basic Things
Different
Giving
Shapes
Vibrate
Basic
Forms
Different Shapes
Gives
String
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Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Physics
Quantum
Quantum Mechanics
Uncertainty
Unexpected
Mechanics
Principle
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I have a much easier time imagining how we would understand the big bang, even though we can't do it yet, than I can imagine understanding consciousness.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Bangs
Consciousness
Understanding
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One very important aspect of string theory is definitely testable. That was the prediction of supersymmetry, which emerged from string theory in the early '70s.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Aspect
Important
Predictions
String Theory
Strings
Theory
Emerged
Prediction
String
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There was a long history of speculation that in quantum gravity, unlike Einstein's classical theory, it might be possible for the topology of spacetime to change.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Change
Gravity
Long
Might
Quantum
Speculation
Theory
Classical
Einstein
Unlike
Long History
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String theory is an attempt at a deeper description of nature by thinking of an elementary particle not as a little point but as a little loop of vibrating string.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Nature
Deeper
Description
Littles
String Theory
Theory
Thinking
Attempt
Elementary
Loop
Particle
String
Vibrating
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So when you ask me how string theory might be tested, I can tell you what's likely to happen at accelerators or some parts of the theory that are likely to be tested.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Might
String Theory
Strings
Tested
Theory
Likely
Parts
String
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You have that one basic string, but it can vibrate in many ways. But we're trying to get a lot of particles because experimental physicists have discovered a lot of particles.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Particles
Vibrate
Basic
Discovered
Experimental
Physicists
String
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I wouldn't have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Black
Fields
Holes
Ordinary
Quantum
Theory
Black Holes
Insights
Theories
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It's indeed surprising that replacing the elementary particle with a string leads to such a big change in things. I'm tempted to say that it has to do with the fuzziness it introduces.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Change
Bigs
Introducing
Surprising
Tempted
Big Change
Elementary
Indeed
Leads
Particle
Replacing
String
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Having those extra dimensions and therefore many ways the string can vibrate in many different directions turns out to be the key to being able to describe all the particles that we see.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Different Directions
Particles
Turns
Vibrate
Describe
Directions
Extra
String
Therefore
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On the other hand, we don't understand the theory too completely, and because of this fuzziness of spacetime, the very concept of spacetime and spacetime dimensions isn't precisely defined.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Defined
Dimensions
Theory
Concept
Hand
Precisely
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The theory has to be interpreted that extra dimensions beyond the ordinary four dimensions the three spatial dimensions plus time are sufficiently small that they haven't been observed yet.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Time
Dimensions
Ordinary
Plus
Spatial
Theory
Three
Observed
Extra
Interpreted
Sufficiently
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I have a tendency, more than most other physicists, to try to figure out everything all at once, before I publish. And even to try to figure out everything in my head, without pencil and paper.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Figures
Paper
Publish
Trying
Pencil
Physicists
Tendency
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As far as extra dimensions are concerned, very tiny extra dimensions wouldn't be perceived in everyday life, just as atoms aren't: we see many atoms together but we don't see atoms individually.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Atoms
Concerned
Dimensions
Everyday
Everyday Life
Teamwork
Tiny
Together
Extra
Individually
Perceived
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As of now, string theorists have no explanation of why there are three large dimensions as well as time, and the other dimensions are microscopic. Proposals about that have been all over the map.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Time
Dimensions
Explanation
Maps
Three
Large
Map
Microscopic
Proposals
String
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Spreading out the particle into a string is a step in the direction of making everything we're familiar with fuzzy. You enter a completely new world where things aren't at all what you're used to.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Familiar
Fuzzy
New World
Direction
Enter
Particle
Spreading
String
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But the beauty of Einstein's equations, for example, is just as real to anyone who's experienced it as the beauty of music. We've learned in the 20th century that the equations that work have inner harmony.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Beauty
Music
Century
Equations
Example
Harmony
Real
Einstein
Experienced
For Example
Inner
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In Einstein's general relativity the structure of space can change but not its topology. Topology is the property of something that doesn't change when you bend it or stretch it as long as you don't break anything.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Change
Space
Break
General Relativity
Long
Relativity
Structure
General
Bend
Einstein
Stretch
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If I take the theory as we have it now, literally, I would conclude that extra dimensions really exist. They're part of nature. We don't really know how big they are yet, but we hope to explore that in various ways.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Nature
Dimensions
Theory
Way
Conclude
Explore
Extra
Literally
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Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very elegant and subtle.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Nature
Describing
Elegant
Equations
Physics
Simplicity
String Theory
Subtle
Theory
Developed
Generality
String
Turned
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Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. String theory does so again because a point particle is replaced by a string, which is more spread out.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Doe
Physics
Principles
Quantum
Quantum Mechanics
Replaced
Spread
String Theory
Theory
Uncertainty
Uncertainty Principle
Unexpected
Brought
Mechanics
Particle
Principle
String
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As for the forces, electromagnetism and gravity we experience in everyday life. But the weak and strong forces are beyond our ordinary experience. So in physics, lots of the basic building blocks take 20th- or perhaps 21st-century equipment to explore.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Experience
Block
Building Blocks
Equipment
Everyday
Everyday Life
Gravity
Ordinary
Physics
Strong
Weak
Lots
Basic
Blocks
Explore
Forces
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I just think too many nice things have happened in string theory for it to be all wrong. Humans do not understand it very well, but I just don't believe there is a big cosmic conspiracy that created this incredible thing that has nothing to do with the real world.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Believe
Conspiracy
Cosmic
Humans
Nice
Nice Things
Real
Real World
String Theory
Theory
String
The Real World
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Technically you need the extra dimensions. At first people didn't like them too much, but they've got a big benefit, which is that the ability of string theory to describe all the elementary particles and their forces along with gravity depends on using the extra dimensions.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Depends
Dimensions
Gravity
Particles
String Theory
Theory
Benefit
Describe
Elementary
Extra
Technically
First People
Forces
String
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Superstring theories provide a framework in which the force of gravity may be united with the other three forces in nature: the weak, electromagnetic and strong forces. Recent progress has shown that the most promising superstring theories follow from a single theory. For the last generation, physicists have studied five string theories and one close cousin. Recently it has become clear that these five or six theories are different limiting cases of one theory which, though still scarcely understood, is the candidate for superunification of the forces of nature.
Edward Witten / Physicist
Cousin
Progress
Strong
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