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Jim__

(14,504 posts)
Tue Dec 17, 2024, 07:30 PM Dec 17

Study claims all observables in nature can be measured with a single constant: The second

From phys.org


The figure illustrates three events in Minkowski spacetime. Event 𝐵 is neither in the past nor in the future of 𝐴, 𝐴 ~ 𝐵, and event 𝐶 is neither in the past nor in the future of 𝐵, 𝐵 ~ 𝐶. Despite this, 𝐶 ∻ 𝐴. Indeed, 𝐶 is in the future of 𝐴: 𝐶 ≻ 𝐴. Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-71907-0
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A group of Brazilian researchers has presented an innovative proposal to resolve a decades-old debate among theoretical physicists: How many fundamental constants are needed to describe the observable universe? Here, the term "fundamental constants" refers to the basic standards needed to measure everything.

The study is published - (open source - Jim) in the journal Scientific Reports.

The group argues that the number of fundamental constants depends on the type of space-time in which the theories are formulated; and that in a relativistic space-time, this number can be reduced to a single constant, which is used to define the standard of time. The study is an original contribution to the controversy sparked in 2002 by a famous article by Michael Duff, Lev Okun and Gabriele Veneziano published - (open source - Jim) in the Journal of High Energy Physics.

The whole story had begun ten years earlier, in the summer of 1992, when the three scientists met on the terrace of the cafeteria at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. During an informal conversation, they discovered that they disagreed on the number of fundamental constants.

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Study claims all observables in nature can be measured with a single constant: The second (Original Post) Jim__ Dec 17 OP
Cool - let me sleep on this and I'll get back to you in the morning. erronis Dec 17 #1
My thoughts exactly NoRethugFriends Dec 17 #2
If it's the one fundamental constant, shouldn't it be called... WestMichRad Dec 17 #3
The Planck time should work, too. BadgerKid Dec 18 #4
Both of which depend on units of time dickthegrouch Dec 18 #5

erronis

(17,181 posts)
1. Cool - let me sleep on this and I'll get back to you in the morning.
Tue Dec 17, 2024, 07:42 PM
Dec 17

Won't understand it any better but it'll give that old night-time brain something to chew on.

WestMichRad

(1,891 posts)
3. If it's the one fundamental constant, shouldn't it be called...
Tue Dec 17, 2024, 08:29 PM
Dec 17

… the first?

(I’ll let myself out now.)

BadgerKid

(4,700 posts)
4. The Planck time should work, too.
Wed Dec 18, 2024, 05:52 AM
Dec 18

It depends on the speed of light, c, and the gravitational constant, G, both of which are (scalar) parameters for our universe. If memory serves, both values may have changed over time, but they are valid everywhere.

dickthegrouch

(3,590 posts)
5. Both of which depend on units of time
Wed Dec 18, 2024, 08:59 AM
Dec 18

Speed = Meters per second
Gravity = Meters per second squared

IIRC.

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