string

…in such systems as stretched strings, air columns, and stretched membranes. The principles discussed here are directly applicable to the operation of string and wind instruments.

The theory envisions that a string undergoing a particular mode of vibration corresponds to a particle with definite properties such as mass and charge. In the 1980s, physicists realized that string theory had the potential to incorporate all four of nature’s forces—gravity, electromagnetism, strong force, and