4 ms·
They have a scale. They are not "discrete" in the sense that pixels are discrete because there is no grid (no orientation, no preferred direction, etc). Think
by tjradcliffe 12y ago
They have a scale. They are not "discrete" in the sense that pixels are discrete because there is no grid (no orientation, no preferred direction, etc).
Think of it like the resolution of a microscope: you can only see objects down to scales of 1 micron, say. That doesn't make what you are looking at discrete at the 1 micron level. It makes it blurry (invisible, or in the case of space and time, non-existent) below that level.
- PaulHoule 12y agoHow it shows up depends on the model. Superstrings are objects of (usually) Planckian size, so if the particles are the size of the "grain" then that is one way a scale could manifest. In other models like loops quantum gravity you can only ask questions about loops in space and not about points so that is another way the scale manigests.