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The thing that helps me "understand" it is that the universe has finite sizes of things like the Planck length for example being a theoretical thing at the smal
by sebringj 6y ago
The thing that helps me "understand" it is that the universe has finite sizes of things like the Planck length for example being a theoretical thing at the smallest distance I would imagine. Now imagine it going smaller than the Planck length (finite) in terms of the difference of .9 repeating and 1 since infinitely small differences can do that. Essentially there is no way to tell the difference between .9 repeating and 1 then from a practical or theoretical perspective of measurement. So not imagining infinity lets us at least imagine smaller than the smallest measurable thing.
- cthalupa 6y ago>The universe has finite sizes of things like the Planck length for example being a theoretical thing at the smallest distance I would imagine The Planck length might or might not be a physical limit of the universe. We don't have any specific proof that it's the smallest, just that we will not be able to observe any of that size or smaller. To look at something, we need to use light, and we must use a wavelength smaller than the details we wish to resolve. For something of the Planck length or smaller, this ultimately results in a photon that would have more energy in that area than can exist without a black hole forming... so one does, which then prevents us from measuring it, much less anything smaller. Space and time might very well be discrete and not continuous - certainly the Loop Quantum Gravity folks would agree there. But there are widely supported theories that take both sides. (I tend to lean towards them being discrete, but I would hesitate to call myself even an amateur hobbyist when it comes to theoretical physics...)