From: Gary Collins (gwcollins@algol.co.uk)
Date: Wed Jul 09 2003 - 04:03:30 EDT
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 06:46:42 -0400, George Murphy wrote:
>Gary Collins wrote:
>....................
>> Q2) Is this not an assumption? I remember reading somewhere (don't ask
>> me where now!!!) that space itself might be quantized; i.e. that there might
>> be a minimum quantum length. Might this not also apply to angular measure?
>> If so, again, it would alter the answer numerically but maybe not in principle.
>> Same may possibly apply to your (2), (3) and (4) (which I have trimmed out)
>> - or no?
>
> The uncertainty principle says that the accuracy of a clock is inversely
>proportional to its energy, while general relativity says that the gravitational
>effect of energy (aka mass) changes the rate at which clocks run. If these effects are
>combined you find that for time intervals ~10^-43 sec the uncertainty in measurement is
>of the order of the measurement itself, so intervals smaller than this - or the
>corresponding length ~10^-33 cm - cant be measured. The classical concepts of space and
>time lose their meaning below this "Planck length." But I don't see right offhand that
>this would require a limit on angular measurements.
>
> Shalom,
> George
>
Thanks for the info. I wasn't intending to suggest that any limit on angular measurement
was required as a result of the limit on length (sloppy writing on my part) but rather
inquiring as to whether there might be such a limit (for whatever reason). In any case,
to assume that there definitely isn't seems to me to be an assumption.
If the number of possible positions for a proton is limited, as seemed to be implied at
least in previous posts) and presumably a similar restriction would apply to other types
of particle as well (incidentally, is there a reason for the focus on the proton?) then it
would seem to me that there would be a limit on the number of orientations possible
for an object made of such particles. Or am I missing something?
Wanting to understand this,
/Gary
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