Suggest a topic for me to write an essay about?

[nobb]

Hey
I am in high school and I have to write and extended essay (4000 words with sources) for the IB program. I was thinking about writing something about string theory. After watching The Elegant Universe, I was pretty interested. Would string theory be too hard for a high school student like me? What other science topics can I consider?

[quasar987]

String would be good. There's a lot of easily fairly easily explainable material there. You could go about quantum physics in general too. The philosophical side is good stuff.

[nobb]

Could you give me an example of easily explanable material on string theory? Maybe I could focus on a small area. I don't really have much knowledge of string theory at the moment. I've only watched Nova's The Elegant Universe, and I'm very interested.

[quasar987]

I like http://superstringtheory.com/ a lot.

[quasar987]

You can't focus on a small area. You could if you were to describe it mathematically. But by words, you can only cover things superficially.

[infidel]

An essay should really have original ideas in it. Just reiterating the state of the art in string theory is perhaps not what your teacher had in mind....?

[nobb]

Thanks for all your suggestions, but my teacher just said that I must do something where I can obtain quantitative results, so basically all theories are cut. Any other suggestions?