What causes the strings to vibrate?

THe Bank

From what I gather string theory states that everything is made of tiny vibrating strings or bands. But what force or energy causes these strings to constantly vibrate?

bel

They vibrate because they obey the Heisenberg's uncertainy principle, i.e., due to what is sometimes called zero-point energy, I think.

alexsok

It's the same as asking "what made the big bang explode"? the simple answer is we don't know and might never know.

THe Bank

I know that in other fields waves with opposite frequncies cancel or wash each other out. If two strings with polar vibrations came into contact with each other, would they cancel each other out? If so, what would happen to the-sub atomic particles made up of these cancelled out strings?

Demystifier

It has nothing to do with Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Classical strings may vibrate too. Just like in the big-bang question, the question reduces to: Why God/Nature has chosen nontrivial initial conditions. I think the question is rather trivial.