What Exactly is a String in String Theory?

[wolram]

please excuse my ignorance, i have read much about strings
sometimes i even get a glimmer of understanding,
the problem is i can not find referance to what a string is
ok an electron is a point particle so a string is?

 

[Mentat]

Originally posted by wolram
please excuse my ignorance, i have read much about strings
sometimes i even get a glimmer of understanding,
the problem is i can not find referance to what a string is
ok an electron is a point particle so a string is?

Actually, in the string theory framework, you discard the idea that an electron (or any other subatomic particle, for that matter) is a point particle. They are all strings.

Answering what a string actually is thus becomes like answering what a point particle actually is in the Standard Model.

 

[wolram]

Actually, in the string theory framework, you discard the idea that an electron (or any other subatomic particle, for that matter) is a point particle. They are all strings.
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so for every particle, wave, in the real world, is a string
that gives that particle, wave, its properties?
i have read that many different types of string are theorized
all basicaly the same thing but in diferent configurations
some one dimentional, some two dimensional etc.
i understand that they are clasified as membranes, but
membranes of what?