Spider-Man: No Way Home- The String Theory, The Multiverse, and Matter Displacement

This is a tribute to Spider-Man: No Way Home. We won’t have any spoilers, except a quote from the movie. Do not read the quote if you don’t want any spoilers! Thank you.

“I am Spider-Man. In my world. But then, yesterday? I was… I was just here. Wow. String theory… Multidimensional reality… And matter displacement. All real? Yeah… Knew it!” - Andrew Garfield (Peter 3), Spider-Man: No Way Home

The new Spider-Man movie is one for the books, but what does it have to do with Astrophysics? Well, we’re here to tell you that the whole movie is based on concepts in Astrophysics, and we’ll be debugging those concepts in this blog!

If you skipped the quote, we’ll tell you what was important in it: string theory, the multiverse, and matter displacement.

The String Theory

So what exactly is the String Theory anyway? We’ve heard it be mentioned in many science fiction movies in the past, but to understand what it truly means in the astrophysical world is, nonetheless, hard. That’s why we’re going to break it down for you in this blog post!

The String Theory is essentially a theory that states objects in our universe are made up of strings (officially called "vibrating filaments") and branes (membranes) of energy. The String Theory attempts to accommodate general relativity with quantum physics. Supersymmetry, a connection between two foundational particles: bosons and fermions, exists (as of recent events, another particle called "Anyons" have been added to the equation). Due to the string theory, it is said that there are universes that exist parallel to each other. Still can’t wrap your head around it? Don’t worry! We’ll break it down even further.

Perhaps the simplest way we can describe the String Theory is a theory that illustrates an idea defining that fundamental particles (ex. electrons, neutrons, protons, etc.) are not in fact "dots" like we model them to be on paper. Instead, they are tiny strings, hence the name ‘string theory’.

The Multiverse

Our next concept is what a lot of Astrophysicists and enthusiasts (including us!) are fascinated by- the Multiverse. The Multiverse is a theory that implies that our Universe is not the only one that exists. With our own Universe being unfathomably big to digest, adding more Universes in the picture is mind blowing. There could be an infinite number of Universes, according to the Multiverse theory. Each Universe could have different laws of Physics, different stars, planets, galaxies, etc. and maybe even whole civilizations like the human civilization (or more advanced!) Just as we have the three Laws of Motion on Earth, in another multiverse, theses laws could simply be wrong! And who knows, maybe there’s a chance that a multiverse has planets which host big, green aliens as often seen on television!

Matter Displacement

Our last concept (but certainly not least) is matter displacement. Matter displacement is essentially the upward force that is exerted on a body covered in a fluid substance that is equal to the weight of the fluid; the force is displaced by the body and goes upward at the center of the mass of displaced fluid.

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Thank you for taking time out of your day to read our blog! Hopefully, you now understand a little bit more about what the lines various characters mean on screen in science fiction movies! Comment down below what you found most interesting and if you learned anything new! Make sure to subscribe to our blog and follow us on Instagram to receive updates on new posts and special announcements. Thank you again and keep gazing skywards!

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