- #1
HibyPrime
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- TL;DR Summary
- An electron would take ~10^110 seconds to collapse into the nucleus due to gravitational wave emission, assuming gravity is not quantized.
Ok, so I've been on a kick trying to really understand why QM and GR are incompatible. I think I get that GR can't be realistically converted into a quantum field because it creates some infinite series that you can't use the normal tricks you would for other QM fields. Hard block, ok got it.
So then what if gravity just isn't quantized? The best argument I was able to find for why it should be quantized was that an electron orbiting the nucleus would eventually lose energy from gravitational waves and fall into the nucleus. This is the same argument that led to a lot of QM in the first place.
So I managed to do the calculation of how long it would take an electron to collapse in on the nucleus based on nothing but gravitational wave emission. The result I got is ~10110 seconds. If this calculation is right, it just wouldn't have ever happened yet. That number is insane.
Equation for calculating the time to collapse from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave#Binaries
Shortened url for the wolfram alpha link to calculation here: https://bit.ly/2KUmmBa
I used the bohr radius for the distance between nucleus and electron.
So then what if gravity just isn't quantized? The best argument I was able to find for why it should be quantized was that an electron orbiting the nucleus would eventually lose energy from gravitational waves and fall into the nucleus. This is the same argument that led to a lot of QM in the first place.
So I managed to do the calculation of how long it would take an electron to collapse in on the nucleus based on nothing but gravitational wave emission. The result I got is ~10110 seconds. If this calculation is right, it just wouldn't have ever happened yet. That number is insane.
Equation for calculating the time to collapse from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave#Binaries
Shortened url for the wolfram alpha link to calculation here: https://bit.ly/2KUmmBa
I used the bohr radius for the distance between nucleus and electron.