Linked Questions

0 votes
3 answers
438 views

Calculus shouldn't work for describing physics [duplicate]

I am not crazy. Hear me out. I am not from a physics background but from maths. I have a really weird question in physics that is making me lose sleep. How can calculus describe physics? How is it ...
Suraj's user avatar
  • 57
-1 votes
1 answer
1k views

Classical Mechanics: Continuous or Discrete universe? [duplicate]

The question of the "continuous" or "discrete" nature of the universe is the subject of diatribe among the greatest physicists in the world. I would like to discuss the same topic, but asking a ...
Valerio Quattrini's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
741 views

Planck length implies lattice structure of space? [duplicate]

There is known to be a lower limit on space, which can be derived from the Planck units. It can describe the minimum distance resolvable between two points; but what then would the structure of space ...
user26561's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
289 views

Is the world we are living in discretized? [duplicate]

I do not know how to use professional words to ask my question, so I will try to use a layman language. Please bear with me for a moment. A ROUGH GUESS The world our eyes are seeing every moment is ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 613
0 votes
1 answer
121 views

How reasonable is it to suppose that we are living in a cellular automaton? [duplicate]

Possibly in the search for a grand unified theory, it seems trendy at the moment for some writers and commentators to claim that space-time is grid-like and discrete rather than continuous. I wonder ...
Bradley Thomas's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
71 views

Time it takes for a single unit of movement [duplicate]

I've just been wondering, what is the time that passes between one moment to another. Lets take an example that we have a single light source, so small that it emits only a single, constant beam of ...
Fort Ash's user avatar
  • 101
0 votes
0 answers
66 views

Minimum amount of space [duplicate]

I always believed that there were no limits in the world and then I learned that a minimum temperature exists, and maybe a maximum speed. And now I am wondering about the boundaries of the world. Is ...
xpy's user avatar
  • 103
0 votes
0 answers
64 views

Discreteness of the universe and evidence for simulation [duplicate]

To my untrained thinking, the Planck length / Planck time implies there is a fundamental granularity or quantisation to the universe. In other words, the universe has a certain “resolution” such that ...
sleep's user avatar
  • 175
1 vote
0 answers
58 views

Quantized spacetime structure? [duplicate]

Is quantized spacetime more like a chessboard or a matrix of lights? I have heard two analogies, the light bulb one appears to allow for movement whilst the chess piece one seems to violate zenos ...
user43609's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
42 views

Can a region of space-time be viewed as a particle with properties of it's own? [duplicate]

Can a piece of space-time having 3 spacial dimensions and 1 dimension of time be viewed as a particle? Could this piece of space-time have properties of its own (mass, spin, charge) independent of ...
Joseph Hirsch's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
36 views

Is the position of matter discrete in universe? [duplicate]

In computer, for example, if we use integer to represent position of objects, position can be (0,0) , (3,5), but not in (1.5,3.5). In real world, there are something that is discrete, such as atomic ...
Gstestso's user avatar
  • 917
1 vote
1 answer
141 views

Aren't we crossing infinity? [duplicate]

Couldn't there be infinitely small time units? When a second passes, aren't we passing infinite units of time? When we walk across a room, aren't we passing an infinite amount of small length units? ...
Fr0zen's user avatar
  • 81
153 votes
2 answers
29k views

Does the Planck scale imply that spacetime is discrete?

On a quantum scale the smallest unit is the Planck scale, which is a discrete measure. There several question that come to mind: Does that mean that particles can only live in a discrete grid-like ...
vonjd's user avatar
  • 3,771
22 votes
9 answers
5k views

Is there such a thing as a "physical" fractal?

The recent discovery of a molecule that mimics the Sierpinski gasket has spurred headlines identifying it as the first fractal scientists have found in nature. I find these claims highly dubious ...
starseed_trooper's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
3k views

How is it possible to differentiate or integrate with respect to discrete time or space?

As far as I have understood, the case is that there is nothing that argues that time or space is continuous, but at the same time we must assume this in order to be able to calculate derivatives or ...
Labbsserts's user avatar

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