6
PHYSICS Of THE IMPOSSIBLE
A spinning magnet creates a force field that pushes the electrons in a
wire, causing them to move in an electrical current. This electricity in
the wire can then be used to light up a lightbulb. This same principle
is used to generate electricity to power the cities of the world. Water
flowing across a dam, for example, causes a huge magnet in a turbine
to spin, which then pushes the electrons in a wire, forming an electric
current that is sent across high-voltage wires into our homes.
In other words, the force fields of Michael Faraday are the forces
that drive modern civilization, from electric bulldozers to today's computers, Internet, and iPods.
Faraday's force fields have been an inspiration for physicists for a
century and a half. Einstein was so inspired by them that he wrote his
theory of gravity in terms of force fields. I, too, was inspired by Faraday's work. Years ago I successfully wrote the theory of strings in terms
of the force fields of Faraday, thereby founding string field theory. In
physics when someone says, "He thinks like a line of force," it is meant
as a great compliment.
THE FOUR FORCES
Over the last two thousand years one of the crowning achievements of
physics has been the isolation and identification of the four forces that
rule the universe. All of them can be described in the language of fields
introduced by Faraday. Unfortunately, however, none of them has
quite the properties of the force fields described in most science fiction.
These forces are
1. Gravity, the silent force that keeps our feet on the
ground, prevents the Earth and the stars from disintegrating, and holds the solar system and galaxy together. Without
gravity, we would be flung off the Earth into space at the rate
of 1,000 miles per hour by the spinning planet. The problem
is that gravity has precisely the opposite properties of a force
field found in science fiction. Gravity is attractive, not repul-
PHYSICS Of THE IMPOSSIBLE
A spinning magnet creates a force field that pushes the electrons in a
wire, causing them to move in an electrical current. This electricity in
the wire can then be used to light up a lightbulb. This same principle
is used to generate electricity to power the cities of the world. Water
flowing across a dam, for example, causes a huge magnet in a turbine
to spin, which then pushes the electrons in a wire, forming an electric
current that is sent across high-voltage wires into our homes.
In other words, the force fields of Michael Faraday are the forces
that drive modern civilization, from electric bulldozers to today's computers, Internet, and iPods.
Faraday's force fields have been an inspiration for physicists for a
century and a half. Einstein was so inspired by them that he wrote his
theory of gravity in terms of force fields. I, too, was inspired by Faraday's work. Years ago I successfully wrote the theory of strings in terms
of the force fields of Faraday, thereby founding string field theory. In
physics when someone says, "He thinks like a line of force," it is meant
as a great compliment.
THE FOUR FORCES
Over the last two thousand years one of the crowning achievements of
physics has been the isolation and identification of the four forces that
rule the universe. All of them can be described in the language of fields
introduced by Faraday. Unfortunately, however, none of them has
quite the properties of the force fields described in most science fiction.
These forces are
1. Gravity, the silent force that keeps our feet on the
ground, prevents the Earth and the stars from disintegrating, and holds the solar system and galaxy together. Without
gravity, we would be flung off the Earth into space at the rate
of 1,000 miles per hour by the spinning planet. The problem
is that gravity has precisely the opposite properties of a force
field found in science fiction. Gravity is attractive, not repul-