I posted this in another thread, but I'd like to know of its feasability by the physics posters. There is an extremely good chance that the idea isnt new, but I've never heard it. Please be gentle, I scream easily Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (and all the physics I know I've had to teach myself) I've had an idea now for a while that there is a "Planck" unit of time of incredibly small duration. That time proceeds in these small chunks step by step. The idea was that for each particle or quanta in the universe was that time proceeds in small discreet steps, from each step of time there are uncountable (but finite) quantum possibilites (some with more probability than others) available for reality for the next step (or "tick") of time, then the wave function collapses into a new reality and time moves on to the next chunk of time and the possibilities balloon out again. The planck unit of time is the duration from one step to another. I believe it accounts for quantum mechanics but also allows macro models to also accurately describe the universe. Everything else is in quanta, why not time? I first thought of this when I read of the many worlds theory (that every possible branching point actually exists), the theory just didnt sound right - where is the energy to continually create all those new universes?
The Planck units are defined by setting the constants G=h=c. In and of themselves they're just another unit system, only interesting because you can work with the above constants in unity. The idea that the planck scale for length and time might quantise space-time comes from semi-classical gravity. You can do a hand-waving derivation that distances smaller than the planck length are shut off from measurement.
One interpretation of Planck length is that it is the smallest distance possible, except, of course, zero. There are arguements that even smaller lengths are possible. However, the proponents of even smaller lengths maintain the same premise; in the real world, at the smallest scale, we can only have zero or the minimum length, nothing intermediate. So, we cannot measure anything smaller than "Planck" length. Unless we measure nothing at all.
You may have seen me do this one on sssf. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Try setting the compton wavelength (rc) for a mass m equal to its schwarzschild radius (rs): rc = h-bar/mc rs = Gm/c^2 m = h-bar/(rc)c = (rs)c^2/G now let rc = rs and call it L: h-bar/Lc = Lc^2/G L^2 = h-bar.G/c^3 This is the definition of the Planck length: Lp = sqrt(h-bar.G/c^3). The physical significance is that the compton wavelength defines the wavelength of a photon required to resolve a particle of mass m. When the compton wavelength reaches the Planck scale the particle of mass m is contained within its own schwarzschild radius, cutting off further measurement precision.
