Posted on 02/20/2016 2:09:29 PM PST by MtnClimber
"God is a pure mathematician!" declared British astronomer Sir James Jeans. The physical Universe does seem to be organised around elegant mathematical relationships. And one number above all others has exercised an enduring fascination for physicists: 137.03599913.
Let me explain. When scientists measure any quantity they must specify the units being used. The speed of light, for example, is either 186,000 or 300,000 depending on whether it is expressed as miles per second or kilometres per second. Likewise your weight might be 150 or 68 according to whether you are measuring in pounds or kilograms. Without knowing the units being used the number is meaningless - unless it is a pure number.
The best known example of a pure number comes from combining three of nature's most fundamental quantities: the speed of light, the electric charge carried by a single electron and Planck's constant of quantum mechanics. In symbols, that's c, e and h. Put them together as follows, hc/2Ï€e2, and the units of c, e and h cancel out to leave a pure number, 137.03599913. If c, e and h were measured by Vulcan scientists using Vulcan units, they would still get 137.03599913. This curious number is therefore a universal constant of nature - "God given" Jeans might have said.
In view of its importance, hc/2πe2 has acquired a name and a symbol all of its own. For historical reasons the inverse, 2πe2/hc = 1/137.03599913, is used. It is known as the fine-structure constant and is denoted by the Greek letter alpha (α).
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmosmagazine.com ...
Can’t figure out how to get “pi” to show up instead of the smart symbol trash.
I love this stuff. Thank you!
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If Planck’s constant were off by the distance between these words, life as we know it would be impossible.
and that’s just one of innumerable factors that had to fit precisely and narrowly.
The odds of that happening are nonzero but so minuscule they may as well be zero.
If you know science you really cannot deny that there was devine input.
What is the usefulness of this number?
Use HTML, that is ϖ
Especially if you have even a layman’s understanding of things like quantum physics.
That is above my pay grade.
Divide 22 by 7 on a calculator.
Is this Erwin Schroedinger the Schroedinger Wave Equations person? Thanks for the links, lots to read!
It predicts the time, in seconds, when a Trump/Cruz thread devolves to garbage.
The one with the famous cat.
Use HTML, that is ϖ
Oops, π or Π
Those being π and Π respectively
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers
I’m fascinated by the # 1.67 showing up as a ratio in nature! The number of peddles on a flower, the ratio of eye separation to the width of the mouth. The probability that a length = 2 the separation between lines and how often the length will fall on the line.
The spiral of a snail shell!
Probably coincidence yet makes you think a higher power could be behind it!
Also, does mean anything significant ?
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