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The Elegant Universe

The Elegant Universe

★ 7.8/10•2003•2h 30m•Documentary
Similars

One of the most ambitious and exciting theories ever proposed—one that may be the long-sought "theory of everything," which eluded even Einstein—gets a masterful, lavishly computer-animated explanation from bestselling author-physicist Brian Greene, when NOVA presents the nuts, bolts, and sometimes outright nuttiness of string theory.

Joseph McMaster · Director

Julia Cort · Director

StatusEnded
Runtime2h 30m
LanguageEN
First Air DateOct 28, 2003

Episodes

Episode 1 - Einstein's DreamE1

Einstein's Dream

Introduces string theory and shows how modern physics—composed of two theories that are ferociously incompatible—reached its schizophrenic impasse: One theory, general relativity, successfully describes big things like stars and galaxies, while another, quantum mechanics, is equally successful at explaining small things like atoms and subatomic particles. Albert Einstein, the inventor of general relativity, dreamed of finding a single theory that would embrace all of nature's laws. But in this quest for the so-called unified theory, Einstein came up empty-handed, and the conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics has stymied all who've followed. That is, until the discovery of string theory.

Oct 28, 2003

Episode 2 - String's the ThingE2

String's the Thing

Opens with a whimsical scene in a movie theater in which the history of the universe runs backwards to the Big Bang, the moment at which general relativity and quantum mechanics both came into play, and therefore the point at which our conventional model of reality breaks down. Then it's string theory to the rescue as Greene describes the steps that led from a forgotten 200-year-old mathematical formula to the first glimmerings of strings—quivering strands of energy whose different vibrations give rise to quarks, electrons, photons, and all other elementary particles.

Oct 28, 2003

Episode 3 - Welcome to the 11th DimensionE3

Welcome to the 11th Dimension

Edward Witten of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, aided by others, revolutionized string theory by successfully uniting the five different versions into a single theory that is cryptically named "M-theory," a development that requires a total of eleven dimensions.

Nov 4, 2003

Actors

Brian Greene

Brian Greene

Host

Steven Weinberg

Weinberg

Nima Arkani-Hamed

Nima

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Similars

How the Universe Works
Die Physik Albert Einsteins
Fun to Imagine
Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail
The physics of Light
Atom
The Search for Solutions
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