What Is Happening In The Smallest Part Of Space?

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by arthur brogard, Mar 14, 2018.

  1. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I think he is simply saying this:

    1] Even at the smallest measurable point, there is always something going on - as opposed to absolutely nothing - because there are always photons passing through any point.
    2] At that smallest measurable scale, in that smallest measurable volume, any photons that enter it would pretty much essentially have to collide, or at least intersect.
    I don't think he meant to invoke "vast" numbers of anything.

    Arthur: are you aware of bosons and fermions? Bosons (such as photons) do not obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle, which means, unlike fermions (such as atoms) they do not take up volume - you can have as many as you want in a volume. They generally don't interact, and the volume doesn't get "saturated" like can would with atoms.
     
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  3. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    That may be true. You are assuming that what he said is not what he meant and I am assuming what he said is what he meant. That is why I asked for clarification to these statements.
    And
     
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  5. Study Registered Member

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    Wheeler contended quantum gravity becomes significant at the Planck scale: This soon gave way to an interpretation of vacuum fluctuations in what Wheeler coined ''quantum foam.'' This theory seems to share resemblance to the strong gravity confinement theories, an idea that \(G\) is not actually a constant. Believe it or not, but \(G\) has been found to oscillate to around 5 years and something (or approximately) can't remember acting much like a sine wave.
     
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  7. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    The alleged periodic variation in measurements of G was attributed, by the authors of the work that reported it, to a correlation with the Earth's natural variation in length of day (period 5.9yrs). https://phys.org/news/2015-04-gravitational-constant-vary.html. In other words it was thought to be an artifact of making measurements here on Earth. However the existence of any such correlation is now disputed, apparently. To quote Wiki:

    " A controversial 2015 study of some previous measurements of G, by Anderson et al., suggested that most of the mutually exclusive values can be explained by a periodic variation.[15] The variation was measured as having a period of 5.9 years, similar to that observed in length-of-day (LOD) measurements, hinting at a common physical cause which is not necessarily a variation in G. A response was produced by some of the original authors of the G measurements used in Anderson et al.[16]This response notes that Anderson et al. not only omitted measurements, they also used the time of publication not the time the experiments were performed. A plot with estimated time of measurement from contacting original authors seriously degrades the length of day correlation. Also taking the data collected over a decade by Karagioz and Izmailov shows no correlation with length of day measurements.[16][17] As such the variations in G most likely arise from systematic measurement errors which have not properly been accounted for."

    None of this debate - about reasons for variation in measurements of G - appears relevant to either "strong gravity" confinement theories or the subject of this thread.
     
  8. Selfexprt.SJ Registered Member

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    I believe the original post is suggesting you answer ____ question about the happenings in the Planck length, if not possible then the smallest possible 'point+length' in any part of space...

    Just spitballing
     

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