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Knots are 3 dimensional curves, which means that each component is just a finite number of stacked vibrations, and a knot is a collection of vibrations.

I also heard there was an old theory that atoms were just different "knots" in the ether and molecules were linked knots.

Finally, I know String Theory concerns vibrating strings.

Does any of these pieces connect to each other, or am I just spewing nonsense?

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  • $\begingroup$ There is a lot to say about this topic, but now it won't be said... Very briefly: as you say, knots are three-dimensional. With more than three dimensions, as in string theory, a knot can unravel itself through motion in the extra dimensions. Also, in string theory a string can change its configuration when it touches itself, through recombination, so a knot would not be stable. In string theory, the variety of particles is not obtained this way, but in other ways... $\endgroup$
    – Mitchell Porter
    Commented Jul 22, 2018 at 4:44
  • $\begingroup$ Knots are definitely a part of physics now, for example you can have knotted field lines, but they don't seem to work as a model of what makes one type of elementary particle different from another. $\endgroup$
    – Mitchell Porter
    Commented Jul 22, 2018 at 4:45
  • $\begingroup$ This is not nonsense, a legit question. The answer is probably no, but a negative answer does not make the question bad. The universe seems to be based on various types of symmetries working together, but not on "strings" or "knots". $\endgroup$
    – safesphere
    Commented Jul 22, 2018 at 5:32

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This part is nonsense: "Knots are 3 dimensional curves, which means that each component is just a finite number of stacked vibrations, and a knot is a collection of vibrations."

The idea of an ether has been thoroughly disproven. However, space time does have shape and curvature according to General Relativity, and there are theoreticians who are still seriously considering the possibility that particles (not atoms, but the elementary particles of which atoms are comprised) are knot-like structures in space time. String theory allows for that possibility, but is not yet experimentally testable.

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    $\begingroup$ The idea of the aether has not been disproven. Note that the math of Special Relativity is called "Lorentz transformations" that come directly from the Lorentz theory of the aether. His theory does not disprove the idea of the aether, only makes the aether relative and undetectable. Special Relativity adds nothing theoretically, only an interpretation that there is no aether. Both interpretations are equivalent. Then General Relativity introduces spacetime with an intrinsic curvature that can be viewed as a property of the aether, QFT adds zero point energy, cosmology adds dark energy, etc. $\endgroup$
    – safesphere
    Commented Jul 22, 2018 at 5:21

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