- #1
Lars
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I have a question which has been bugging me for the last day or so. The problem is that I am a complete physics novice, and while I studied Mathematics a long time ago, I haven't used it in years and have forgotten most of it since. Which is why I hope that I'm not bugging you with this question. My questions is probably about something that is really trivial in quantum physics, but I can’t stop thinking about it.
If this is a stupid question just tell me so and it won’t bother me at all. And actually, I think this may actually be more of a philosophy question then a physics question.
Okay start here it is:
Imagine an object about a centimeter long up against a ruler. The end of the object is positioned at the 1 cm mark, the start of the object is at the 2 cm mark. Now push the object a little bit, say half the distance of the object. Now the object is at the 1.5 cm to 2.5 cm. I am probably not saying this well, but at a certain intellectual level the simple fact that I can move my object into a sort of space half again the size of my object implies that I can chop it at least in half.
Okay now imagine, hypothetically, that I can shrink in size, dwindling down and down into the sub-atomic level of size. I am now so tiny that right in front of me is a Quark, or if a Quark is not the smallest division of something matter-like or energy-like then whatever is. It is here that my question becomes relevant. I reach out my finger and nudge this Quark half the distance of itself in a direction.
This would seem to me to imply four possibilities.
1) I shrink in size again. Dwindling down and down and down again, and look up at the quark which is now growing like a meteor, like a planet above me, which would imply that the quark was again divisible. After all there is open space to put bits of it in.
2) That space and matter have absolutely no relationship to one another. One is just the thing, the other is just the empty space to put the thing into.
3) That at some level there is a smallest unit of space that is roughly approximately in size to the smallest unit of matter. And that my hypothetical pushing is more like moving pixels across a computer screen than true motion. One unit of charge, charging a nearby unit of space, and the unit of space that it has just vacated becoming uncharged.
4) That something else entirely is going on and that I am too caught up in my rather vague memories of classical physics.
So I guess my question is this. Is there a smallest unit of space?
Lars Townsend
If this is a stupid question just tell me so and it won’t bother me at all. And actually, I think this may actually be more of a philosophy question then a physics question.
Okay start here it is:
Imagine an object about a centimeter long up against a ruler. The end of the object is positioned at the 1 cm mark, the start of the object is at the 2 cm mark. Now push the object a little bit, say half the distance of the object. Now the object is at the 1.5 cm to 2.5 cm. I am probably not saying this well, but at a certain intellectual level the simple fact that I can move my object into a sort of space half again the size of my object implies that I can chop it at least in half.
Okay now imagine, hypothetically, that I can shrink in size, dwindling down and down into the sub-atomic level of size. I am now so tiny that right in front of me is a Quark, or if a Quark is not the smallest division of something matter-like or energy-like then whatever is. It is here that my question becomes relevant. I reach out my finger and nudge this Quark half the distance of itself in a direction.
This would seem to me to imply four possibilities.
1) I shrink in size again. Dwindling down and down and down again, and look up at the quark which is now growing like a meteor, like a planet above me, which would imply that the quark was again divisible. After all there is open space to put bits of it in.
2) That space and matter have absolutely no relationship to one another. One is just the thing, the other is just the empty space to put the thing into.
3) That at some level there is a smallest unit of space that is roughly approximately in size to the smallest unit of matter. And that my hypothetical pushing is more like moving pixels across a computer screen than true motion. One unit of charge, charging a nearby unit of space, and the unit of space that it has just vacated becoming uncharged.
4) That something else entirely is going on and that I am too caught up in my rather vague memories of classical physics.
So I guess my question is this. Is there a smallest unit of space?
Lars Townsend
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