I never realised that there may
be a minimum unit of both time and length. I wonder if this could be
a possible means to define the metre and the second.
planck length
a unit of distance representing the scale at which gravity, and perhaps
space itself, becomes quantized (discrete) rather than continuous. This is the
shortest distance that is meaningful in our understanding of the laws of
physics. The planck length is defined to be the square root of
Gh/c3, where G is the universal gravitational
constant, h
is Planck's constant, and c is the speed
of light. This makes the planck length about 4.051 x 10-35 meter.
planck time
a unit of time equal to the time required for a photon moving at the speed
of light to travel the distance of one planck length. This is the shortest time
that is meaningful in our understanding of the laws of physics, representing the
scale at which time itself may become quantized (discrete) rather than
continuous. The planck time is about 1.351 x 10-43 second.
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