I came across a few articles today on Plus, an online mathematics magazine, which presented some of the basics of theoretical physics—string theory and M-branes in particular—in a simple, accessible way. If you’re interested, a good way to do this would be to start “From Newton to Einstein and beyond” and to try “Tying it all up” before you “Meet the mother theory”.
Of course, the hard math underlying all these theories really is essential if you want to grok this stuff. I would recommend Sir Roger Penrose’s The Road to Reality, about two-thirds of which is spent in actually explaining the math behind such things as general relativity. Stephen Hawking wrote in A Brief History of Time that his editor warned him that every equation he put in would scare away half of his readers. By this metric, Sir Roger’s editor was probably content to have an audience of five. Including himself. (I’ve worked through less than a third of the book so far!) The Road to Reality tries to cover, quite literally, everything. Reading it will do to your mind what diving into a P90X training program will do to an obese Indian bureaucrat’s body.
Of course, the hard math underlying all these theories really is essential if you want to grok this stuff. I would recommend Sir Roger Penrose’s The Road to Reality, about two-thirds of which is spent in actually explaining the math behind such things as general relativity. Stephen Hawking wrote in A Brief History of Time that his editor warned him that every equation he put in would scare away half of his readers. By this metric, Sir Roger’s editor was probably content to have an audience of five. Including himself. (I’ve worked through less than a third of the book so far!) The Road to Reality tries to cover, quite literally, everything. Reading it will do to your mind what diving into a P90X training program will do to an obese Indian bureaucrat’s body.
