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R = 10. A string can wrap around this circular dimension one time, two times, three times, and so forth. The number of times a
string wraps around the circular dimension is called its winding number. The energy from winding, being determined by the length
of wound string, is proportional to the product of the radius and the winding number. Additionally, for any amount of winding, the
string can undergo vibrational motion. As the uniform vibrations we are currently focusing on have energies that are inversely
dependent on the radius, they are proportional to whole-number multiples of the reciprocal of the radius—1/R—which in this case
is one-tenth of the Planck length. We call this whole number multiple the vibration number.88

As you can see, this situation is very similar to what we

encountered on Wall Street, with the winding and vibration
Vibration number Winding number Total energy
numbers being direct analogs of the shares held in the two
companies, while R and 1/R are the analogs of the closing prices 1 1 1/10 + 10 = 10.1
per share in each. Now, just as you can easily calculate the total
value of your investment from the number of shares held in 1 2 1/10 + 20 = 20.1
each company and the closing prices, we can calculate the total
1 3 1/10 + 30 = 30.1
energy carried by a string in terms of its vibration number, its
winding number, and the radius. In Table 10.1 we give a partial 1 4 1/10 + 40 = 40.1
list of these total energies for various string configurations,
which we specify by their winding and vibration numbers, in a 2 1 2/10 + 10 = 10.2
Garden-hose universe with radius R = 10.
2 2 2/10 + 20 = 20.2
A complete table would be infinitely long, since the winding 2 3 2/10 + 30 = 30.2
and vibration numbers can take on arbitrary whole-number
values, but this representative piece of the table is adequate for 2 4 2/10 + 40 = 40.2
our discussion. We see from the table and our remarks that we 3 1 3/10 + 10 = 10.3
are in a high-winding-energy/low-vibration-energy situation:
Winding energies come in multiples of 10, while vibrational 3 2 3/10 + 20 = 20.3
energies come in multiples of the smaller number 1/10.
3 3 3/10 + 30 = 30.3
Now imagine that the radius of the circular dimension shrinks, 3 4 3/10 + 40 = 40.3
say, from 10 to 9.2 to 7.1 and on down to 3.4, 2.2, 1.1, .7, all the
way to .1 (1/10), where, for our present discussion, it stops. In 4 1 4/10 + 10 = 10.4
this geometrically distinct form of the Garden-hose universe we
can compile an analogous table of string energies: Winding 4 2 4/10 + 20 = 20.4
energies are now multiples of 1/10 while vibration energies are 4 3 4/10 + 30 = 30.4
multiples of its reciprocal, 10. The results are shown in Table
10.2. 4 4 4/10 + 40 = 40.4

At first glance, the two tables might appear to be different. But

Table 10.1 Sample vibration and winding configurations of a
closer inspection reveals that although arranged in a different
string moving in a universe shown in Figure 10.3, with
order, the "total energy" columns of both tables have identical
radius R = 10. The vibration energies contribute in multiples
entries. To find the corresponding entry in Table 10.2 for a
of 1/10 and the winding energies contribute in multiples of
chosen entry in Table 10.1, one must simply interchange the
10, yielding the total energies listed. The energy unit is the
vibration and winding numbers. That is, vibration and winding
Planck energy, so for example, 10.1 in the last column means
contributions play complementary roles when the radius of the
10.1 times the Planck energy.
circular dimension changes from 10 to 1/10. And so, as far as
total string energies go, there is no distinction between these
different sizes for the circular dimension. just as the interchange of fitness-high/valves-low with valves-high/fitness-low is exactly
compensated by an interchange of the number of shares held in each company, interchange of radius 10 and radius 1/10 is exactly
compensated by the interchange of vibration and winding numbers. Moreover, while for simplicity we have focused on an initial
radius of R = 10 and its reciprocal 1/10, the conclusions drawn are the same for any choice of the radius and its reciprocal.89

88
In case you are wondering why the possible uniform vibrational energies are whole number multiples of 1/R, you need only think back to the discussion of quantum mechanics—the
warehouse in particular—from Chapter 4. There we learned that quantum mechanics implies that energy, like money, comes in discrete lumps: whole number multiples of various energy
denominations. In the case of uniform vibrational string motion in the Garden-hose universe, this energy denomination is precisely 1/R, as we demonstrated in the text using the
uncertainty principle. Thus the uniform vibrational energies are whole number multiples of 1/R.
89
Mathematically, the identity between the string energies in a universe with a circular dimension whose radius is either R or 1/R arises from the fact that the energies are of the form
v/R + wR, where v is the vibration number and w is the winding number. This equation is invariant under the simultaneous interchange of v and w as well as R and 1/R—i.e., under the
interchange of vibration and winding numbers and inversion of the radius. In our discussion we are working in Planck units, but we can work in more conventional units by rewriting the