Why does relativity break down at small scales?

[Pjpic]

Is there a standard explanation, for the non-scientist, why realitivity breaks down at small scales? Is is because, if an object get small enough (but before it gets to a dimensionaless point) its gravity becomes infinity strong?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Who says relativity breaks down at small scales? We don't see any relativistic failures in atomic or subatomic physics.

 

[Bill_K]

Pjpic, General Relativity breaks down at scales so small that gravity becomes strong enough to induce quantum effects.

An estimate of this scale can be made as follows. For a particle of mass m there is a distance associated with its quantum effects known as the Compton wavelength, h/mc. If you try to confine a particle within a region of this size, pair production will occur and the single-particle description will no longer suffice. The distance associated with the gravitational effects of the particle is the Schwarzschild radius, 2Gm/c². Breakdown occurs when these two distances are comparable, h/mc ~ Gm/c². This happens at a mass m ~ √(hc/G) known as the Planck mass, and a distance r ~ √(hG/c³) known as the Planck distance.