What are Chords? What is the smallest "unit" in physics?

Mason_Free

Someone told me they read a Yahoo AP article stating the most basic "building block" of the universe was a sound wave, and upon discovery this had been named a chord(or perhaps cord/kord/etc).

Again, this was an AP article, but I haven't found anything on it.

What is this?

genericusrnme

That's nonsense I'm afraid.
Are you sure this wasn't april the 1st?

atyy

I bet it was http://today.lbl.gov/2012/02/28/smoo...of-the-cosmos/.

More seriously, Wilczek has used a musical analogy. I can't locate it now, but IIRC it was about the Schroedinger wave equation and its eigenstates, which are analogous to the wave equation for sound and its harmonics.

atyy

Here's Wilczek's musical analogy: "in quantum mechanics, atoms appear as musical instruments".

It's 4 minutes into The Universe is a Strange Place.

Mason_Free

Yeah...Someone had told me it might be a misunderstanding of a string theory analogy ..something about tiny strings being the most basic bit of the universe, and these strings vibrate. With different vibrations creating a different particle, etc.