For some strange reason, as I get older I seem to find it more and more comforting that there remain so many things still beyond our understanding. It leaves room for the imagination.

 

Edited October 1, 20223 yr by HiFlyer

I think this number is the real answer to “Life, the Universe and Everything”, and not 42.

 

Can't watch it right now,  my internet is down b/c of Fiona. But ask 5 physicists what the biggest mystery of the universe is,  and you will get 6 different answers 😉

I remember reading somewhere that if some civilization from a previous big bang (cyclic cosmology?) wanted to leave a message, they would have to find a way to imbed it into the actual basic fabric of the next universe, though in that article, supposedly you would be looking for clues in the CMB.

Same argument if our universe were deliberately created, as in, this is a simulation....

“one of the greatest word not allowed mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding”

Richard Feynman 

I spent decades believing that the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything was 42.  Now I am enlightened, it's actually the tiny fraction 1/137.  Poof!  Mind blown.

Actually, the ultimate answer is 3.  As proven by Jean Shepherd's "Lost at C" where he sees the #3 on the jock's football jersey and used it to answer the algebra question on the chalk board.

 

The second instance is in Star Trek TNG "Cause and Effect" where the number 3 is seen all over the ship.  Commander Riker had the correct solution to avoid the collision.

 

 

The Fine-Structure Constant is 0.00729735256... not 0.0729735256...

I wonder how much difference it would make if it was exactly 1/137 instead of 1/137.035999...

Edited October 2, 20223 yr by dmwalker

33 minutes ago, dmwalker said:

I wonder how much difference it would make if it was exactly 1/137 instead of 1/137.035999...

The difference between life and death...war and peace...understanding women...which flight simulator is best!

Noel

3 hours ago, stans said:

I spent decades believing that the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything was 42.  Now I am enlightened, it's actually the tiny fraction 1/137.  Poof!  Mind blown.

That was the very first thing I thought of myself! 🤯

41 minutes ago, birdguy said:

..understanding women...which flight simulator is best!

Noel

😄

Compared to those questions, finding the reason for the value of the fine structure constant seems quite trivial 😉

But coming back to the topic: the video makes a valid point, from a certain perspective. Particle physicists and astrophysicists are great in coming up with questions that appear to be of very fundamental interest. Why is alpha=1/137, and what if it wasn't? Where is there almost no antimatter left in space if we know it should have been there during the Big Bang? Why do we not see 90% of the energy (dark matter, dark energy) in the universe, but can detect its presence?

All are good and valid questions, and trying to answer them can be fascinating. On the other hand, one may also give much more mundane answers. For antimatter and dark energy, it could simply be that our models are not valid on large scales anymore. For the fine structure constant, an almost equivalent question would be: why does the electron have the charge it has? Sounds much more boring, but the fine structure constant essentially measures the interaction energy between two particles that have the charge of the electron. Given that electromagnetic forces dominate our daily life (gravity is much weaker and doesn't become significant until you have a huge amount of mass, like a planet; and nuclear forces only act on very short distances), it is no wonder that alpha pops up everywhere in phenomena that we deem of interest.

I would reformulate the question about the fine structure constant and ask why electric charge only comes in multiples of the electron charge. Why is charge quantized? 

Peter

10 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

I remember reading somewhere that if some civilization from a previous big bang (cyclic cosmology?) wanted to leave a message, they would have to find a way to imbed it into the actual basic fabric of the next universe, though in that article, supposedly you would be looking for clues in the CMB.

Same argument if our universe were deliberately created, as in, this is a simulation....

Not if they wanted us to logically and morally deduce their existence rather than be forced into believing in it. In that case they would not leave such elementary and obvious clues. That would spoil the whole experiment of waiting to see if we became wise or remained foolish.

3 hours ago, dmwalker said:

I wonder how much difference it would make if it was exactly 1/137 instead of 1/137.035999...

"Life as we know it would be outright impossible if the fine-structure constant had even a slightly different value."

https://www.space.com/fine-structure-constant-universe-mystery 

I read the link.  I don't much understand it but I read it hoping I would

Now I'm going to ask a simple question and hope there is a rather simple layman's answer to it.

31 minutes ago, dmwalker said:

"Life as we know it would be outright impossible if the fine-structure constant had even a slightly different value."

How do you know that?

Noel

57 minutes ago, birdguy said:

How do you know that?

It's a quotation from my referenced article in the part titled "The limit of knowledge". 

Also it's in the originally referenced video at 8:20. 

Both of the presenters are astrophysicists.

Edited October 2, 20223 yr by dmwalker