How 4 fundamental constants reveal minimum scales where physics ends

How 4 fundamental constants reveal minimum scales where physics ends

How the Planck scale is derived from the most important fundamental constants in physics. This is where our physics ends. If you wanted to simulate the universe in a computer, you would need to enter about 26 fundamental constants.

15 of these are the rest masses of the fundamental particles of the standard model. 4 are the quark mixing parameters, required to describe the weak nuclear force. 4 are the neutrino mixing parameters. Cosmological constant describing the acceleration present in the universe’s expansion. fine structure constant which describes strength of the electromagnetic force, and the strong coupling constant – which defines the strength of the strong nuclear force.

But 4 are special fundamental constants apply to everything everywhere. The gravitational constant G – It can be thought of as the proportionality factor between the strength of gravity and the masses creating that gravity. It has units of length cubed divided by mass times time squared.

The speed of light, C is like a conversion factor between Mass and energy, or a conversion factor between the time dimension and the three spatial dimensions of our 4 dimensional universe.

Planck’s constant is the fundamental constant that sets the minimum scale of quantum phenomenon. It can be found in just about any quantum mechanics equations. It has units of mass times distance squared divided by time.

Boltzmann’s constant plays a role in determining the amount of vibrational energy contained in the atom related to temperature. It is just the definition of the energy contained in one degree Kelvin and has units of energy per degree.

0:00–3:36 How to create a universe 3:37–6:05 Most important constants 6:06–7:39 Derivation of Plank scale 7:40–11:44 Significance of Planck scale 11:45–13:46 Fine tuning & other speculations