Well, string theory is, I believe, effectively unfalsifiable, so yeah, it basically is just making shit up.
Heh, this.
Quantum mechanics sounds like people are just making stuff up, but some of the math (linear algebra) is not too hard to follow, although probably not with a high-school math background. Still, as Kate says, it's the experimental data that's important (and QM has that, so does relativity) -- one can make up fancy mathematical models all day long, but unless experiments back it up, it's just playing with making stuff up. (Nothing wrong with that! It's what mathematicians do every day! But I don't know that it should be called physics.)
no subject
Heh, this.
Quantum mechanics sounds like people are just making stuff up, but some of the math (linear algebra) is not too hard to follow, although probably not with a high-school math background. Still, as Kate says, it's the experimental data that's important (and QM has that, so does relativity) -- one can make up fancy mathematical models all day long, but unless experiments back it up, it's just playing with making stuff up. (Nothing wrong with that! It's what mathematicians do every day! But I don't know that it should be called physics.)