Thursday, 14 April 2022

Choose a number, dear God!

In the previous post, I argued that all of physics except constants is possible to deduce by pure reflexion, following the lines established by Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. 

We are one step away from finishing the form of physics; albeit this one step is a huge one, comparable to all our efforts in physics so far. 

We need five constants to complete a rationalist construction of physics: Planck length, Planck time, Planck mass, Planck temperature (entropy), Planck charge. The problem we face for all these constants is that they are not dimensionless; they depend on our choice of measurement units. I have yet no idea how to solve this problem. Therefore I focus on a simpler problem: determination of the only dimensionless constant of physics; the Fine-structure constant

This simpler problem is all about the simplest possible question of physics: Choose a real number!

We have no information, no guide, no clue whatsoever from anywhere in human knowledge (not only physics) that can help us with this problem, not in the slightest. Status of this problem is no different from that of mechanics in the days of Kepler and Descartes. Like the Principle of Inertia, or equivalently, Principle of Least Action, this problem enters metaphysics. 

No comments:

Post a Comment