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How small do things can get? |
Question Date: 2017-08-30 | | Answer 1:
The smallest length scale that physicists can
think of, is the Planck length, which is
roughly 1.6 x 10{-35} meters or
about 10{-20} times the size of a
proton. But physics at such a short length
scale is not completely understood yet, although
many believe that the string theory is the
theory for physics at the Planck length scale. | | Answer 2:
There is something called the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle that prevents anything
from getting truly small because its location in
space becomes diffuse and undefined. This
is a fundamental law of quantum mechanics
and a fundamental property of physics: it
is difficult to explain in detail without a great
deal of college-level math. This
"fuzziness" of where something is located
in space does not prevent particles from being
packed into each-other, but it does make it seem
like they form tiny clouds rather than act
as single particles.
This said, Einstein's theory of general
relativity predicts the existence of
singularities - points in space that are
infinitely dense and where time literally
ends.
Black holes contain such singularities as
the theory goes. Obviously, this disagrees with
the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, so one or
the other (or both!) of the two theories must fail
when you look at the interior of black holes, but
nobody knows which or how the theories break when
it does happen. | | Answer 3:
Matter can get quite small! The smallest
known particles are subatomic particles such as
quarks, which comprise protons and neutrons,
and electrons. These particles are described in
terms of their masses, in units of
meVc-2. Electrons have a mass of
about 0.5 meVc-2, which corresponds to
roughly 10-30kg (1 in the 30th decimal
place!). To put this into perspective, an average
adult human weighs around 70kg! I hope this
helps! | | Answer 4:
Everything is made of atoms, and that's the
smallest thing that has the different chemical
properties of different things. Oxygen atoms,
nitrogen atoms, carbon atoms, for example. If an
oxygen atom, for example, is broken apart, it
isn't oxygen any more. There are electrons and
protons and neutrons, but those aren't oxygen,
they're just the particles that make up all
matter. Those things can break down into smaller
particles that high energy physicists study.
Atoms are between 30 and 300 millionths of a
meter across - a meter is just a bit bigger than a
yard. Protons and neutrons are smaller than
atoms, of course, and electrons are about 1000
times smaller than protons or neutrons.
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