Reposting bc I dun goofed before

  • @Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    45 months ago

    Plank time is arbitrary too. Plank time is the time it takes light to move 1 Plank length. It’s no different than any other time measurement other than it’s the shortest measurable unit of time.

    • @GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      35 months ago

      How is the shortest measurable amount of time it’s possible to measure with the physics of our universe arbitrary?

      • @Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        25 months ago

        It’s arbitrary in the same way measuring the time between photon absorption/emission in a cesium atom is arbitrary or the rotation of our planet is arbitrary.

        Picking the smallest is arbitrary just like picking a larger interval.

        In the cesium clock case, you count 9192631770 because it’s close to 1 second we already are familiar with and arbitrarily say 9192631770 transitions is defined as 1 second.

        For example Planck time is defined as 5.391247(60)×10−44 seconds. But what is that second? It’s the arbitrary 9192631770 cesium transitions we picked because it’s close to the second that come from Earth’s spin.

        • @GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          35 months ago

          Planck time doesn’t appear to be arbitrary, but a feature of our universe, hence the shortest measurable unit of time. It’s length in seconds is arbitrary because seconds are arbitrary. And seconds are arbitrary because the only non-arbitrary unit of time we have found so far is too unwieldy to use for anything but scientific purposes, and it’s very unwieldy for many of those.