Why Is 1/137 One of the Greatest Unsolved Problems In Physics?

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  • Опубликовано: 27 сен 2022
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    The Fine Structure Constant is one the strangest numbers in all of physics. It’s the job of physicists to worry about numbers, but there’s one number that physicists have stressed about more than any other. That number is 0.00729735256 - approximately 1/137. This is the fine structure constant, and it appears everywhere in our equations of quantum physics, and we’re still trying to figure out why.
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Комментарии • 9 тыс.

  • @CL-ie5fz
    @CL-ie5fz Год назад +8381

    Its 0.007299, not that hard to solve bros.

    • @Rxmstrk
      @Rxmstrk Год назад +1192

      Harvard owes you a PhD now

    • @dm121984
      @dm121984 Год назад

      Bruh, it's just a number bruh, it can't hurt you. PhD please.

    • @HellDragon115
      @HellDragon115 Год назад +858

      Mom: we have a ramanujan at home
      Ramanujan at home:

    • @sileightynz5274
      @sileightynz5274 Год назад +59

      But y tho

    • @eddsson
      @eddsson Год назад +53

      ​@@HellDragon115 HAH!

  • @EnesMiracKaya
    @EnesMiracKaya Год назад +9692

    Some alien civilization wanted to make a fully simulated space game. One programmer set a constant as 1/137 during development, then left the dev team. After a while some other programmer went over the code and couldn't figure out what the constant was for. He commented the code saying "I don't know what it does or why it has that value. When deleted the whole universe breaks down so don't touch it."

    • @Pallidum
      @Pallidum Год назад +1688

      The fact that it's not exactly 1/137 is due to a rounding error in an earlier version of libuniverse. This has been kept in the code for legacy compatibility.

    • @1224chrisng
      @1224chrisng Год назад +907

      this "Coconut Constant" can be combined with the Rum and Pineapple constants to make an ultimate universal constant, to be discovered by the large piña collider

    • @patreekotime4578
      @patreekotime4578 Год назад +605

      Its an easter egg. 1/137 is just the programmers name.

    • @sudeeptaghosh
      @sudeeptaghosh Год назад +254

      What if the parallel universes are created just by varying this constant

    • @osmosisjones4912
      @osmosisjones4912 Год назад +79

      If you make a simulation close enough down to every atom isn't that more of a recreation

  • @przemek3556
    @przemek3556 7 месяцев назад +532

    Wolfgang Pauli had always been mystified by fine structure constant. He died in hospital in room number 137.

    • @reeflextv9805
      @reeflextv9805 5 месяцев назад +25

      Wait till you realize that that was no mere coincidence (coincidences are a false concept). God will deliver this message soon.

    • @Rakscha-Sun
      @Rakscha-Sun 5 месяцев назад +4

      This is when dedication to math goes to fare :)

    • @tuberroot1112
      @tuberroot1112 5 месяцев назад +150

      @@reeflextv9805 Wow that is the 137th time I've heard that crap. God must be telling me something.

    • @baptistebauer99
      @baptistebauer99 5 месяцев назад +49

      @@reeflextv9805 A few questions, why do you come to a physics enjoyers space to tell religious things? What do you expect? Are you simply trolling? I mean no harm.

    • @TeHPHoBoS999
      @TeHPHoBoS999 4 месяца назад +10

      @@baptistebauer99 Because physicists are also some of the most superstitious people in existence. And because it's funny.

  • @jrp107
    @jrp107 9 месяцев назад +829

    "To build a universe it may be that only one number needs to be decided. And from it all other constants of nature follow." That sounds a lot like the seed value for a procedurally generated world (like mincraft)... But I also like the idea that it could be related to some higher level geometries that we don't yet understand (like PI is to circles).

    • @Mexican00b
      @Mexican00b 8 месяцев назад +76

      Oh cool, i bet we got some speedrunner right now doing a small 13 trillion year speed run of our universe

    • @RovingTroll
      @RovingTroll 8 месяцев назад +64

      To top that off we know that the plank length is the smallest unit of distance that something can travel, which implies a universal pixel size.

    • @davidhand9721
      @davidhand9721 7 месяцев назад +68

      ​@@RovingTrollno, the Planck units don't work like pixels. The concepts of pixel resolution and physical resolution are not the same. Space does not have unitary cells. The Planck length is the minimum _distance_ that can be meaningful. If two things are closer together than the Planck length, that's fine, but nothing else in the universe can tell they aren't just one thing. It's similar to how resolution works in a microscope. No matter how many magnifying lenses you use, you're never going to see two distinct objects closer together than the resolution.

    • @RovingTroll
      @RovingTroll 7 месяцев назад +15

      @@davidhand9721 that's basically a pixel

    • @davidhand9721
      @davidhand9721 7 месяцев назад +55

      @@RovingTroll it really isn't, though. Pixels are evenly spaced. Planck lengths are not. With pixels, you can resolve two objects less than a pixel apart if they are on opposite sides of a boundary between pixels; both objects will light up a pixel. However, two physical objects less than a Planck length apart can never be resolved. There are no Planck length boundaries; space is continuous in QM.
      There are a variety of properties in QM that are quantized, i.e. they can only be integer multiples of some minimum unit. Space is not one of them. Planck units aren't generally related to quantization. For example, the Planck mass is the _maximum_ mass of a single particle, and that particle would be a black hole with an event horizon surface of one Planck area. I guess you could think of the Planck mass as the minimum black hole mass, but it's absolutely huge on the particle scale. It's roughly the mass of a dust mote.
      The same applies to the Planck time. Time is continuous also, so it doesn't represent something like a frame rate.
      I hope that clears up the confusion.

  • @peabody3000
    @peabody3000 Год назад +4885

    i can attest: it's amazing how i always understand almost exactly 1/137th of every PBS spacetime video i watch

    • @horaceosirian8993
      @horaceosirian8993 Год назад +63

      Let's entangle: that way I'll always understand almost exactly 1/137th of every PBS spacetime video you watch, without having to do anything, and you'll understand almost exactly nothing, w/o any effort on your part. Everyone -wince- wins.

    • @lokan_kuru8721
      @lokan_kuru8721 Год назад +31

      You're on 137th like, I won't like it to maintain equilibrium

    • @MarriedMindless
      @MarriedMindless Год назад +6

      You just made my day!

    • @henriqueacabral
      @henriqueacabral Год назад +3

      ahah precious

    • @razaus
      @razaus Год назад +25

      that's 1/137 more than me.

  • @MichaelNiles
    @MichaelNiles Год назад +4943

    Little known fact: our universe was a typo, the 4D experimentalists had originally meant to type "1337" for the seed phrase

    • @MechaStorm7
      @MechaStorm7 Год назад +301

      Great, this is my headcanon now

    • @innocentbystander3317
      @innocentbystander3317 Год назад +1

      @@MechaStorm7
      Cosmic inflation and redshift is the map getting smaller, dark energy is the shutdown command, and dark matter is the "save-state" on backup media. All is naught as the backup will be deleted as a mistake and a new seed (sans typo) will be started (new heavens and new earth). It's all been foretold and prophesied.
      In the name of the proton, neutron, and electron; Ramen!

    • @3VILmonkey
      @3VILmonkey Год назад +64

      Excellent.

    • @timothycain8639
      @timothycain8639 Год назад +55

      Brilliantly done

    • @VanBurenOfficial
      @VanBurenOfficial Год назад +10

      Smoke 🎉 me 😂 out

  • @diegosolis9681
    @diegosolis9681 3 месяца назад +66

    The most interesting thing about physics is that when we start to tug on the strings of one thing we find out it's tangled with the strings of the entire universe.
    In Marcus Aurelius words:
    “And in the case of superior things like stars,
    we discover a kind of unity in separation.
    The higher we rise on the scale of being,
    the easier it is to discern a connection
    even among things separated by vast distances.”
    Dude lived thousands of years ago and he was already unto something

    • @user-io2ym6gm8z
      @user-io2ym6gm8z 2 месяца назад +3

      Or ON SOMETHING 🤣

    • @diegosolis9681
      @diegosolis9681 2 месяца назад +3

      @@user-io2ym6gm8zHe was Roman... so perfectly plausible 🤣

    • @coyotepeyote
      @coyotepeyote Месяц назад +1

      What's crazier is Marcus Aurelius was one of the emperors, if only all politicians could be so wise.

    • @jasonodaniel6487
      @jasonodaniel6487 Месяц назад

      The most interesting thing about physics is you think it's a real thing and entangles the whole universe. The super, duper majority of the scam known as physics is less real than Vulcans. There's a theory that explains the universe even though none of these people can use any of it to solve their own goddamn lives. They still get divorced. They still have kids on drugs and they still get stuck in traffic jams. They die in plane crashes on the way to AIDS conferences. Their big brains and allegedly infallible math can explain the universe but it can't tell them they're going to get cancer 6 months from now. People belonging to this religion are every bit as insane as Charles Manson. Explains the universe but can't even tell them what's coming 5 minutes from now in their own lives. Geniuses to be sure... the same way Manon's "family" thought he was a genius. When you're galactically stupid, everybody is a genius by comparison so congrats on your stupidity Diego.

    • @skeetyeet3928
      @skeetyeet3928 28 дней назад

      @@coyotepeyote whats crazy is the fact rick and morty creators realised this and dedicated ricks universe C-137

  • @sebastiancardozo591
    @sebastiancardozo591 9 месяцев назад +204

    I loved the way you all wrapped this video up. Gave me goosebumps thinking that the universe could be built off of one constant variable. Something extremely complex came from something so simple.

    • @volteer1332
      @volteer1332 9 месяцев назад +4

      Isn't that how computer random number generators often work? A single string that diverges dynamically each time it calculates?

    • @PCRedman
      @PCRedman 9 месяцев назад +31

      It's our minecraft seed

    • @volteer1332
      @volteer1332 8 месяцев назад +3

      @@PCRedman that is a very good analogy!

    • @user-mz8bw6rz9v
      @user-mz8bw6rz9v 7 месяцев назад

      It looks like 4²+1)6)+1

    • @billshiff2060
      @billshiff2060 7 месяцев назад +1

      What give me goose bumps is that Archimedes constant PI is there too.

  • @Greatamericaneclipse
    @Greatamericaneclipse Год назад +867

    Outstanding and stimulating video! When I studied physics at UC Berkeley, my quantum mechanics classes were Physics 137A and 137B, not a coincidence

    • @B.O.L.T.
      @B.O.L.T. Год назад +40

      Of course they were. What other number would they be? 😆

    • @luiszuluaga6575
      @luiszuluaga6575 Год назад +88

      No doubt some of the tenured professors or faculty was having their fun with the undergrads. 🤷🏻‍♂️😅

    • @samiam619
      @samiam619 Год назад +4

      And did ANY of it make sense?

    • @AlanTheBeast100
      @AlanTheBeast100 Год назад +8

      If you posted an assignment defining what 1/137 meant: automatic fail.

    • @muondude
      @muondude Год назад +4

      I was a TA for 137😂. Still haven’t figured it out!

  • @aaronlangley8106
    @aaronlangley8106 Год назад +608

    wow the conundrum really is like discovering pi but not being able to visualise a circle

    • @drd1924
      @drd1924 Год назад +13

      I like it

    • @michaelallen2971
      @michaelallen2971 Год назад +7

      This

    • @AlanTheBeast100
      @AlanTheBeast100 Год назад +16

      One of the nicest comparisons I've ever read.

    • @greenanubis
      @greenanubis Год назад +8

      Hmm, similar to visualizing a tesseract. Its one dimension more than we can "see".

    • @ighfee
      @ighfee Год назад +1

      Nice analogy 😜

  • @pizza8725
    @pizza8725 4 месяца назад +35

    This number is also the ratio between electronic force and strong force so it could be related to this

    • @davidhand9721
      @davidhand9721 Месяц назад +8

      That's just because the strong force coupling constant is close to 1. It doesn't shed any additional light.

    • @Lund.J
      @Lund.J 10 дней назад

      It is a quotient relative to the 33rd prime number.
      But do you understand, what that means ?

  • @TerryKakavoulis-vv1pt
    @TerryKakavoulis-vv1pt 5 месяцев назад +5

    It’s wonderful to have a proportional representation of the proton being projected as an electron after a proton is discovered and weighted in terms of h bar in a field between two h bars. A discovery indeed!
    To get to h bar..
    Thank you Mat.

  • @alexanderferling4092
    @alexanderferling4092 Год назад +488

    Pauli died in 1958 in Zürich in hospital room No. 137. He was crazy about this room number and saw it as a bad sign!

    • @arzelzon4489
      @arzelzon4489 Год назад +1

      bad sign?

    • @tylerknight99
      @tylerknight99 Год назад +62

      @@arzelzon4489 well yeah he was right, he died in there. it was a freaking hit job

    • @fryncyaryorvjink2140
      @fryncyaryorvjink2140 Год назад +16

      The real 666

    • @innacrisis6991
      @innacrisis6991 Год назад +35

      @@tylerknight99 I guess the universe really didn't want him figuring this one out, huh?

    • @JoniIkalainen
      @JoniIkalainen Год назад +15

      @@innacrisis6991 just mocked him about it

  • @ArseneGray
    @ArseneGray Год назад +454

    I stopped understanding anything really 40 episodes ago or so. But I am addicted to this channel

    • @xezazase
      @xezazase Год назад +43

      The weird synth music, British accent, diagrams, and big words...
      It just seems like it must be making me smarter.

    • @hbermpi
      @hbermpi Год назад +19

      Thanks Lester, I thought it was just only me!

    • @pentasteve9723
      @pentasteve9723 Год назад +24

      @@xezazase pretty sure he's Australian and not British

    • @martinschmidt4894
      @martinschmidt4894 Год назад +5

      @@pentasteve9723 Must be the physics frazzling his brain.

    • @karenfox1421
      @karenfox1421 Год назад +1

      Me too. 😀

  • @Condorman1
    @Condorman1 23 дня назад

    Thank you Matt and Space Time. You put on an amazing presentation every single time.

  • @helenavandewater3846
    @helenavandewater3846 7 месяцев назад +9

    I am amazed! If I was younger, I would choose a physics study in quantummechanica! But these kind of videos keep me up to date!

  • @pavelvalenta2426
    @pavelvalenta2426 Год назад +610

    so the answer to universe and everything is not 42 but 1/137. Interesting.

    • @822nivla
      @822nivla Год назад +15

      My thoughts exactly!

    • @smithcon
      @smithcon Год назад +64

      Fun fact: If you invert the fine structure constant, divide the result by pi, and then subtract the golden ratio from the result, you get approximately 42.

    • @cereal-killer4455
      @cereal-killer4455 Год назад +11

      @@smithcon no you don’t. What is inverting and dividing? Isn’t that just dividing the other way?

    • @MarcelloGarini
      @MarcelloGarini Год назад +8

      @@smithcon I think you are onto something here 😂

    • @ncdave4life
      @ncdave4life Год назад +31

      It means God has 34 fingers. 137 in base 10 is 41 in base 34. ("42" was a typo.)

  • @TheDisabledGamersChannel
    @TheDisabledGamersChannel Год назад +137

    I LOVE it when Physicists, mathematicians, scientists etc etc say "i don't know", it make me excitied cause theres still allot to be discovered and learn about.

    • @pbsspacetime
      @pbsspacetime  Год назад +53

      EXACTLY! The other phrase we always want to hear was best described by the great Isaac Asimov: "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka” but “That's funny...”

    • @TheDisabledGamersChannel
      @TheDisabledGamersChannel Год назад +3

      @@pbsspacetime 👍

    • @kapsi
      @kapsi Год назад +4

      Just because we don't know something doesn't mean it's possible to learn it. Like how we'll probably never learn if other universes exist.

    • @Joe4evr
      @Joe4evr Год назад +3

      @@kapsi Indeed, as proven by Gödel.

    • @DrWhom
      @DrWhom Год назад

      mathaticians?

  • @aidenmcdonald5605
    @aidenmcdonald5605 7 месяцев назад +30

    earlier in the video you said the fine structure constant started out as 1 but eventually fell down to ~ 1/137 , but it has the unique value of e^2/(4π*E0*h*c) where e, π, E0, h, c, are all well defined natural constants (some with units). But does that mean that earlier in the universe, some combination of these constants also had to start off at a different value? (ex. plank's constant started at a specific value but fell down to 6.6x10^(-34) ? or am i misunderstanding things? does this mean at the moment when a=1, e^2 would have equaled 4π*E0*h*c ? or did it happen to just settle to the value of this combination of natural constants?

    • @GruntDestroyarChannel
      @GruntDestroyarChannel 5 месяцев назад +1

      e is a purely mathematical constant like pi, not based off physical reality. The other constants may have varied though 😮

    • @LilB0pete
      @LilB0pete 5 месяцев назад +1

      Actually due to e=mc^2 all forces in the universe were all once the same. The only relic of this our universe is left with electroweak coupling

    • @Writer_Productions_Map
      @Writer_Productions_Map 27 дней назад

      This is literally that meme like:
      "P1: Hey, what's [mathematical equation]?
      P2: [Some nerdy stuff]...
      P3: Agreed, [more nerdy stuff].
      P4: That's right, but [even more nerdy stuff]!

  • @andywallace56
    @andywallace56 5 месяцев назад +254

    A thought moment: It's fascinating that the rough age of the universe has been believed to be around 13.7 billion years.

    • @grantnatalie8439
      @grantnatalie8439 5 месяцев назад +127

      To be fair tho, the year as a unit of measurement is just a consequence of Earth’s orbit. It isn’t some sort of universal constant.

    • @monkemilitia
      @monkemilitia 4 месяца назад +26

      1/137 is embedded in the laws of physics, so when the universe was 2 billion, or 3.76 seconds, or 4.98 billion years old, it didn’t matter. It’s a coincidence that we live in the exact time that our current understating puts the universe at 13.7 billion years; and nothing more then that.

    • @masterleon40
      @masterleon40 4 месяца назад +34

      @@monkemilitia The unit years is arbitrary, so the aprox age of the universe being 13.7 billion years is completely meaningless.

    • @monkemilitia
      @monkemilitia 4 месяца назад +7

      @@masterleon40 that’s what I said

    • @guilhermemaximo9337
      @guilhermemaximo9337 4 месяца назад +3

      ​@@monkemilitiadid you watch the video? 7:20

  • @devnull7970
    @devnull7970 Год назад +275

    Here's what the binary in the message @9:48 translates to
    00110100 00110010 = 42
    00110110 00111001 = 69
    00110001 00110011 00110111 = 137
    The problem with this is that it's encoded in base 10 using ascii symbols.
    Personally I think it's better to encode the numbers directly in binary.
    42 -> 101010
    69 -> 1000101
    137 -> 10001001

    • @l-esprit_de_l-ouest
      @l-esprit_de_l-ouest Год назад +58

      More universal is: to draw 137 times the same symbol.
      If they don’t understand they are dumb.

    • @Duiker36
      @Duiker36 Год назад +5

      Better for what?

    • @chrisconnor8086
      @chrisconnor8086 Год назад +28

      420 69 1337

    • @brandonhenley3597
      @brandonhenley3597 Год назад +2

      @@chrisconnor8086 gg

    • @DoubleOhSilver
      @DoubleOhSilver Год назад +22

      @@Duiker36 he means it's better to represent the numbers in binary, rather than ASCII. The encoding is actually "42" as a string instead of the actual value 42. Same for the other numbers

  • @felixu95
    @felixu95 Год назад +1143

    Excellent video, but I think the number most universally stressed out over by physicists is the rent.

    • @Robinson8491
      @Robinson8491 Год назад +14

      They are always 'seeking alpha'

    • @WalterKiefer
      @WalterKiefer Год назад +17

      You're right, it is too damn high.

    • @dens790130
      @dens790130 Год назад +25

      All they could afford was a fine structure

    • @Ace1King1
      @Ace1King1 Год назад +3

      It's Trump's IQ.

    • @deloachapproach4273
      @deloachapproach4273 Год назад

      @@Ace1King1
      Why does some Ass King always have to come along and ruin everything by inserting politics into the equation?

  • @V.O.Y.S.
    @V.O.Y.S. 4 месяца назад +2

    This is honestly mind blowing stuff right here.

  • @lesliegreenhill2389
    @lesliegreenhill2389 7 месяцев назад +65

    Let me add something unexplored.
    The number 137 appears as the hypotenuse in a Pythagorean Triple with the proportions 88:105:137.
    The sum of these three numbers is 330.
    Divide 330 by 105 and the quotient is 22/7, the famous fraction used to represent pi. All this leads to marvellous things.

    • @sillybears4673
      @sillybears4673 7 месяцев назад +14

      Also Rick and morty were in the universe c137. Which is also interesting lol

    • @Blade.5786
      @Blade.5786 7 месяцев назад +35

      ​@@sillybears4673*cue "You need a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty" copypasta*

    • @FillipTraumItWasAGoodDream
      @FillipTraumItWasAGoodDream 6 месяцев назад

      Interesting

    • @ColinCarFan
      @ColinCarFan 4 месяца назад +2

      Only problem is that pi is not 22/7 so not precise enough.

    • @lesliegreenhill2389
      @lesliegreenhill2389 4 месяца назад +1

      @@ColinCarFan I didn't say pi was 22/7. I presume you know that proportion appears in the design of the Great Pyramid.

  • @reggieziet
    @reggieziet Год назад +344

    Man I understood 1/137th of it all, but still nice to learn something new that is truly fascinating.

    • @goldenageofdinosaurs7192
      @goldenageofdinosaurs7192 Год назад +14

      Lol, same. It didn’t help that I kept spacing out during the video. Still, it’s great to know that people are out there trying to answer the questions

    • @donadams5503
      @donadams5503 Год назад +1

      As a SETI person, I always wanted to use Pi times hydrogen as the carrier frequency. But now I'll have to rethink unique signatures

    • @bigboss-tl2xr
      @bigboss-tl2xr Год назад

      @@donadams5503 we won't EVER be allowed to join the Federation as long as we still engage in war.

    • @billyalarie929
      @billyalarie929 Год назад

      same.

  • @henryj.8528
    @henryj.8528 Год назад +376

    Astrophysicist Arthur Eddington was fascinated by pure numbers. He promoted the "Eddington number, " which he calculated to be 10E80 protons in the universe (current estimate). He used that number and a complicated formula to derive the fine structure constant which had been measured to be 1/136 (at the time). Later, when alpha was measured more accurately and determined to be 1/137, Eddington revised his formula so that it now equaled 1/137. He was then known as "Arthur Adding-one."
    On the other hand, he's also the guy who put Einstein on the map.

    • @brockdidenko5729
      @brockdidenko5729 Год назад +5

      🤣

    • @PeterMancini
      @PeterMancini Год назад +6

      I love that story! 🙃

    • @maak6270
      @maak6270 Год назад +4

      Arthur '2 Sheds' Jackson 😁

    • @InertiaCreeps
      @InertiaCreeps Год назад +14

      This speaks to my comment. Humans are still small minded animals who are absolutely dumbfounded by patterns and will go to painful lengths to claims that 1/137 (0.007299270072993) is the same as 137 is the same as 137^2 (18,769 ) and that there is *clearly* SOME MEANING behind similar numbers randomly popping up in completely unrelated places. It’s infuriating and yet mildly reassuring to know that our greatest minds are susceptible to human fallibility just like the rest of us.

    • @hkumar7340
      @hkumar7340 Год назад +48

      Adding-one was also the one who publicly (at a Royal Society meeting) trashed Chandrasekhar Subramaniam's finding, that stars whose mass exceed the Chandrasekhar Limit could end up as a black hole due to gravitational collapse. Eddington did not like Chandra's result because it went against a grand theory of the universe that he (Eddington) had propounded. So, instead of demonstrating the logical shortcomings of Chandra's paper, Eddington said, "I am sure that there must be a law of the universe to prevent such an absurdity from occurring." The 'absurdity,' of course, being the black hole.
      Science progresses one funeral at a time!

  • @BlackBuck777
    @BlackBuck777 9 месяцев назад +7

    Absolutely riveting. Even if I don't really grasp all of the concepts.
    What I do understand is that we live in a universe that's exactly right and that's a whole other philosophical problem.
    However - as something of an aside - at 7:35 - ish you're explaining the drop in the value of the constant from the Big Bang (1) to now (1:137) and I am strongly reminded of H2G2 at the point where Trillian is on the Heart of Gold just about to pick up Arthur Dent, and the Infinite Improbability Drive is counting down.

    • @kevinbrooks9074
      @kevinbrooks9074 6 месяцев назад +1

      Frank Sinatra's "Balls in Yo Jaws" used to play at my uncle's house all the time when I was young! I remember him picking me up in his van after t-ball practice, it was cool because it always had candy! He always had a warm popsicle in his pants too, cream-filled I think? He used to compliment me on how good I could keep secrets. The song really takes me back to a better time!

  • @mitchilito99
    @mitchilito99 5 месяцев назад +11

    Matt never fails to awe and entertain. What a great resource!

  • @justsaying7979
    @justsaying7979 Год назад +587

    Watching this video made me feel like I learned something without actually having to have learned anything. Well done.

    • @horaceosirian8993
      @horaceosirian8993 Год назад +6

      Plants yearn learning.

    • @starfyredragon
      @starfyredragon Год назад +21

      Learning there's something you don't know, so now you know you don't know something instead of previously not knowing you don't know something is learning something.

    • @nodaysback8390
      @nodaysback8390 Год назад +2

      Watching this video made me feel like I learned something without actually having learned anything.

    • @JacobManson77
      @JacobManson77 Год назад

      it's cool to know about something I don't know nothing about, but everybody who knows about it,knows exactly the same amount. (have I wrote a poem by accident?)

    • @HRAE
      @HRAE Год назад

      Username checks out

  • @Lew114
    @Lew114 Год назад +900

    These videos manage to blow my mind even though I only understand about 1/137 of the physics.

    • @davidparadis490
      @davidparadis490 Год назад +27

      Better than me...I only understand about 1/137 squared of quantum physics

    • @dy6682
      @dy6682 Год назад +34

      I understand even less . Will wait and ask God herself. Respect

    • @rubiks6
      @rubiks6 Год назад +13

      @@dy6682 - It sounds like you've invented your own god. The true, living God has given us His Word and when he refers to himself he uses masculine pronouns. If that bothers you, too bad. He is, after all, God. He always wins arguments.

    • @DobromirManchev
      @DobromirManchev Год назад +4

      Underrated comment

    • @CrakenFlux
      @CrakenFlux Год назад

      @@dy6682 Not a lot of respect on your part assigning gender to the creator. he is not to be measured by your ideations anymore than we would be by a phage's.

  • @tylerchristensen1484
    @tylerchristensen1484 6 месяцев назад +1

    I usually tend to watch about a third of these PBS Space Time videos because I don’t know what the heck it all means, but here goes something!

  • @lucreziaravera
    @lucreziaravera 3 месяца назад

    Nice video, congratulations, always very clear! Let me just point out that in the formula at 3:28 there is a typo in the units for the vacuum permittivity: it should be C^2 instead of C^7.
    P.S.: I totally love the black hat with the channel logo... 🤩😍

  • @Ebani
    @Ebani Год назад +350

    Love the atmosphere you create around explaning that constants are dimensionless, feels almost paranormal.

    • @vedantsridhar8378
      @vedantsridhar8378 Год назад +10

      True. Perfect thing to watch just before sleeping.

    • @808bigisland
      @808bigisland Год назад +2

      The "dimensionlessness" of a field can vary in size, can be a pointlike singularity and hide hidden variables at the unobservable planck size.

    • @ninianstorm6494
      @ninianstorm6494 Год назад

      need to force city officials to cut own wealth to support daca+ lower taxes permanently by big amount for all those making below 150k per year to prove daca worth it since for ages DC never lower living cost only print dollars to do more refugee crisis
      Nuland Hillary McCain Podesta deeply involved start ukraine crisis strike first blood but use woman that put severed finger in wendy chili 2.0 shameless blame russia
      when muller charge manafort for things nothing to do with russia hack but let podesta go for same reason =blackmail dc/Britain(thank Blair Iraq) to support blame russia to cover up fact 2 party system failed since mccain-hillary all did united fruit company scandal 2.0 but remain rich
      recall fbi never look at physical evidence just crowdstrike/hillary words, cia break glass 2017 inauguration with media claim russia stolen election
      left wing media give protest t-shirts to san quan mayor for lying about never receive maria supplies
      ruclips.net/video/qYmCtYLE9k0/видео.html
      george bush 14y ago said add ukraine to nato foreshadow nuland f eu coup 2014 support =
      1. ruclips.net/video/nTQ3D1a-j20/видео.html
      2001 pentagon memo kill occupy iraq to syria
      ruclips.net/video/_mrJRHwbVG8/видео.html
      current ukraine gov is proxy since obama drew red line just like did in syria earlier arming rebels telling russia not to interfere while zelensky ethnic cleanse donbass region 7y=
      2. ruclips.net/video/ta9dWRcDUPA/видео.html
      3. ruclips.net/video/IBeRB7rWk_8/видео.html
      dnc establishment kill 50 in vegas/portland, thugs attack with stand down cops san jose/charlotte, burn loot several months, sabotage afgan withdraw using russia bounty smear to give taliban equip, crash car in to wisconsin parade thanks to nbc follow jury bus smearing ritten house too
      ruclips.net/video/UxoL8tHSa7g/видео.html
      ray epps-fake sole survivor from ritten house case 2.0/podesta 2.0 when you look at left wing msm collaborate
      ruclips.net/video/OnVHhn-vgUw/видео.html
      dnc smear looking into treat covid symptoms/travel bans but permit parades/riots, recall snitches get rewards?
      a. ruclips.net/video/06Fyg4maLWg/видео.html
      b. ruclips.net/video/P1FUMdHU29c/видео.html

    • @JamesNeave1978
      @JamesNeave1978 Год назад +5

      No Units can be seen as just another way to express A Ratio.
      What's really turning up are pairs of numbers describing two similar things where the left hand thing is 137 times larger than the Right Hand Thing.
      But everywhere.

    • @ivanleon6164
      @ivanleon6164 Год назад +1

      every physicist has nightmares with it.

  • @hahtos
    @hahtos Год назад +270

    So 42 is NOT the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything 🤯

    • @TravisGarris
      @TravisGarris Год назад +33

      137 is just over 43 times π. So... 42 is close, but not quite there.

    • @Corvaire
      @Corvaire Год назад +19

      Or better yet, is 137 the question? ;O)-

    • @iwanttwoscoops
      @iwanttwoscoops Год назад +20

      but it is bro!!
      Calculate 2*phi, and subtract 1. Square this number. Multiply by pi (I mean, obviously... we did just square the previous number).
      Now, if you multiply this quantity by 42, you will get 137.

    • @innocentbystander3317
      @innocentbystander3317 Год назад +17

      @@iwanttwoscoops
      Instructions unclear.
      Smashed calculator with head, and now I count 137 stars circling my melon..
      🤯💫

    • @trent_carter
      @trent_carter Год назад +15

      I was just going to type that (137/3.14)-1 = 42

  • @luizbotelho1908
    @luizbotelho1908 7 месяцев назад +1

    In the Universal systems of unity (where the light velocity , the Planck constant and the vacuum permeability are dimensionless and all equal to unity ) and also in the framework of Weinberg Salam unification Theory , the fine structure constant (essentially the square of the electronic charge ) is exactly proportional to the Higgs field self interaction coupling with a proportionality factor (pure number) depending on the ratio of the mass of vectorial bosons and of the Higgs field.

  • @absolutedesi5899
    @absolutedesi5899 3 месяца назад +3

    I was recently studying the bohr model of the atom and I saw that the velocity of an electron in the first bohr orbit of hydrogen is c/137

  • @WeeWeeJumbo
    @WeeWeeJumbo Год назад +186

    this is the clearest explanation of the fine structure constant that i've ever heard. my gratitude is enormous

  • @gavros9636
    @gavros9636 Год назад +683

    1/137 is the real-world version of 42. The secret of life, the universe, and everything is encoded in 1/137... Too bad we don't know the question.

    • @Ozinarg
      @Ozinarg Год назад +19

      Could just be a coincidence. After all, 42 itself has a lot of things unique to itself. As do many other numbers.
      But since you brought up 42, check out all the stuff it's known for en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_%28number%29?wprov=sfla1

    • @LuisSierra42
      @LuisSierra42 Год назад +37

      The creators of the simulation just found that the simulation only worked with this number but even they didn't now how

    • @gavros9636
      @gavros9636 Год назад +42

      @@LuisSierra42 We just need to build a planet-sized computer to calculate the solution.

    • @CallowG
      @CallowG Год назад +33

      "What do you get if you divide 137 by Pi?"
      OK not exactly 42 but close.

    • @gavinvalentino6002
      @gavinvalentino6002 Год назад +1

      *SLATFATF*

  • @samuelmelcher333
    @samuelmelcher333 7 месяцев назад +2

    Even as a lay person, I think I can imagine why this number would be so damn tantalizing. Questions like “How does Quantum Mechanics fit with Relativity?” or “What caused the Bang Bang?” or “What’s at the center of a black hole?” seem to call for a response of, “Well, I sure hope the combined work of scores of teams of brilliant scientists eventually figure that out, ideally in my lifetime, but it seems possible we’ll never know.”
    The fine structure constant not only feels like it’ll inevitably be part of some greater understanding of physics, but also that there’s just enough information there to make it feel like, “if only I could just bang my head hard enough against the problem I just might be able to unlock an answer, and maybe even that new understandings of physics along with it”.

    • @FillipTraumItWasAGoodDream
      @FillipTraumItWasAGoodDream 6 месяцев назад

      I have to say, you put this in a way that I see reality, the void, and the reaction a little more (designed space created vs the creation of a space per the reaction on ones reality in its building or as it is built. What is more real -the void between reacting and the reaction per the void as it is pre reaction into its reaction. Ty.

  • @PhilipvanderMatten
    @PhilipvanderMatten 4 месяца назад

    Fascinating! Oh, and well told. I had to get used to the presenter, but soon enjoyed it very very much!

  • @s3cr3tpassword
    @s3cr3tpassword Год назад +755

    We had a professor in grad school who is obsessed with the fine structure constant. Whenever he gets to the chapter with α, he would go off on a tangent about how peculiar it was. We made him a meme amongst the grad students. Whenever new grad students join, they would see α or 1/137 all over the TA and RA office and wonder what’s up with that. We just tell them to wait till they take that one professor’s class.
    It’s grad quantum 1, so every new grad student has to take it. And sure enough, after the semester the new students understood all the memes.

    • @Woollzable
      @Woollzable Год назад +6

      😂😂😂

    • @igisanchez265
      @igisanchez265 Год назад +26

      liar, you've said in countless videos about poverty in America that you don't have money to attend college. You do know people can read, right?

    • @Dan-yk6sy
      @Dan-yk6sy Год назад +52

      @@igisanchez265 woah woah, checking comment history.. did I end back up on reddit?

    • @gravoc857
      @gravoc857 Год назад +18

      @@Dan-yk6sy The fedora’s have infested every comment section available on the internet 😂😂

    • @chrismanson3211
      @chrismanson3211 Год назад +2

      go off on a tangent hehehe 🤓🤓🤓 sorry, never gets old.

  • @merseybear
    @merseybear Год назад +412

    Matt you and the team that put PBS Space Time episodes together week after week are doing a fantastic job in explaining some of the more difficult concepts that underpin physics. Your delivery is not only clear and concise but also entertaining as well as thought-provoking. Bravo to you all.

  • @zacharyreid7557
    @zacharyreid7557 23 дня назад +1

    4:39 the portal from Rick and Morty showing up because they’re from dimension C-137 was a nice easter egg

  • @wmmfvb9628
    @wmmfvb9628 5 месяцев назад +1

    Thanks for the video.

  • @taylorhornby7475
    @taylorhornby7475 Год назад +270

    If α changed over time, does that mean the ratios between the other constants changed over time? e.g. rewrite the equation as c = e^2/(α4πε₀ℏ); either the speed of light changed over time, some other constants changed to hold c constant, or the formula for α isn't true at all times.

    • @davidandrewthomas
      @davidandrewthomas Год назад +53

      This is a really great question. I hope he answers it in the next video.

    • @davidandrewthomas
      @davidandrewthomas Год назад +33

      My guess as to the answer: it’s the minimum value of the fine structure value that is actually a constant. The value that changed over time has decreased down to approach this constant limit, and this constant limit is the α that shows up in the equation with other constants of nature.

    • @rosskrt
      @rosskrt Год назад +19

      I would guess π changes from time to time.

    • @rosskrt
      @rosskrt Год назад +23

      Jokes aside, as the fine structure constant is also the electromagnetic coupling constant, I would guess that IF (big if) the formula is true at all times, it's the electric permeability of the void to change over time. But that's just a wild guess, it could totally be that c was different in the past or that the formula needs adjusting to account for different energy levels. Who knows.

    • @patreekotime4578
      @patreekotime4578 Год назад +28

      I think that "over time" was relatively quickly during the formation of the universe. As he mentioned, higher a values mean that atoms cannot form. So the early purely energetic universe had this super high a value but everything had to cool down to a ~ 1/137 before "stuff" could form from the pure energy state.

  • @thenderyoshi
    @thenderyoshi Год назад +453

    Back when Minecraft added the command block, the \give command still used numerical IDs, and the command block's was 137.
    Back then, I was really excited about this block so I just incorporated that number on a bunch of stuff I made (especially my old Scratch projects)
    Turns out I couldn't have picked a better number!

    • @SJrad
      @SJrad Год назад +16

      I wonder if it was intentional

    • @mpjstuff
      @mpjstuff Год назад +24

      Yeah -- well, that Minecraft project in the future is accidentally sent back to the creation of this Universe in a few hundred years. The Universe is widely regarded as a bad idea and poorly implemented, and it looks like it was your fault.🙃

    • @mayhemdiscordchaosohmy573
      @mayhemdiscordchaosohmy573 Год назад +6

      @@mpjstuff your name is Marc not Douglas or Addams!

    • @stevekalgren1059
      @stevekalgren1059 Год назад +4

      Was just about to say, perhaps you didnt pick that number. Maybe, it picked you.
      Oddly enough, my favorite numbers are 3, 17, and 79.
      I can tie these numbers together in different ways a day. Like the old TVLand commercials used to do with actors.

    • @DomChapman
      @DomChapman Год назад +9

      Seems like 137 is the Minecraft seed number for our universe.

  • @VoloMit
    @VoloMit 8 месяцев назад +5

    Thank you very much for your videos, they are great! I have a question/remark about $\alpha$. At minute 7, in the video, you say that $\alpha$ was initially around 1, then that during the expansion of the universe it gradually dropped to its current value. Perhaps this is a kind of equilibrium reached by gradient descent? Maybe a stable universe, induced by $\alpha \approx$ 1/137, acts in return on $\alpha$, preventing it from going any lower. What do you think?

    • @trbz_8745
      @trbz_8745 6 месяцев назад +2

      ...bro you know RUclips doesn't have LaTeX right?

    • @Eaglepass
      @Eaglepass 4 месяца назад

      Thanks alien commentary makes me falling back too earth 😅
      Actually it's only left over data in thee DNA strands.
      Coined Tele pdays.
      Exception being $$$ just forgot the deci-points spreadsheet.
      Long distance calls r-included.
      Superman was sadly eliminated passing earth with a C+.
      His lucky coin chance had fell into the box.
      Forgeting pulse rates distribution raised furry smashing the booth into total volume decimation.
      I'm gonna give comprehensive a like for remembering my friend Superlatives.

  • @unzmpiti8147
    @unzmpiti8147 Месяц назад

    5:00 very cheeky! I went through a rollercoaster of emotions.😂

  • @pierredelecto7069
    @pierredelecto7069 Год назад +722

    Maybe if we just used base 137 instead of base 10 this would make sense. If only we had 137 fingers.

    • @TheSettlers90
      @TheSettlers90 Год назад +124

      But it seems to me that the constant is only closely approximated by 1/137, the real number is slightly different

    • @1224chrisng
      @1224chrisng Год назад +51

      well, every base, when written is its own base, is base 10, the problem is what base is that written in

    • @petersage5157
      @petersage5157 Год назад +78

      I think base e would be more natural.

    • @bobbasic
      @bobbasic Год назад +7

      @@petersage5157 Or base pi.

    • @AndrewBlucher
      @AndrewBlucher Год назад

      @@petersage5157 Ah, a very wise choice!

  • @TotalRookie_LV
    @TotalRookie_LV Год назад +115

    It's also 33rd prime number (starting counting from 2), thus for communication it might make sense to transmit list of prime numbers up to 137.

    • @jajssblue
      @jajssblue Год назад +5

      I like this idea

    • @Chareidos
      @Chareidos Год назад +2

      @@jajssblue That it is a prime-number actually freaks me out a little ^^

    • @finickybits8055
      @finickybits8055 Год назад

      @@Chareidos Ditto

    • @elledan77
      @elledan77 Год назад +3

      mason's have 33 degrees too

    • @garymathis1042
      @garymathis1042 Год назад +4

      It's not a prime number; it's an irrational number.

  • @MagusArtStudios
    @MagusArtStudios 9 месяцев назад

    I really enjoyed that, very intriguing. :)

  • @2smoker64
    @2smoker64 8 месяцев назад

    Thank you PBS.

  • @DanielBerke
    @DanielBerke Год назад +395

    Excellent explanation of the fine-structure constant. I got my PhD earlier this year for measuring constraints on variation in alpha (an area of research going back to 1956) in nearby Sun-like stars, and that quote from Feynmann made it into my thesis. (For the curious, I applied a method for measuring the fine-structure constant in astronomical observations to main-sequence stars in the Milky Way for the first time, allowing us to put a constraint of ~12 parts per billion on any variation in its value within 52 parsecs of us, about a hundred times more precise than previous constraints measured in our galaxy.)

    • @ottobhan725
      @ottobhan725 Год назад +13

      Good on ya mate. What next?

    • @EmrysMerlin8807
      @EmrysMerlin8807 Год назад +12

      Ok, but can you see why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch? Edit: Seriously tho, that's awesome!

    • @yzmotoxer807
      @yzmotoxer807 Год назад +19

      Check out the big brain on Daniel!

    • @EmrysMerlin8807
      @EmrysMerlin8807 Год назад +4

      @@yzmotoxer807 Pulp Fiction?

    • @yzmotoxer807
      @yzmotoxer807 Год назад +1

      @@EmrysMerlin8807 you got it, dude

  • @user-yo3dz8in8f
    @user-yo3dz8in8f 9 месяцев назад +459

    It’s crazy how 4π just pops up in Coulomb’s Law. 4π steradians is the solid (3d) angle of a whole sphere. If you haven’t yet discovered steradians, that’s like 360° but for a sphere not a circle. The universe is telling us it prefers spheres, and that’s roughly what we see at every scale of organization we’ve observed.

    • @julianbell9161
      @julianbell9161 9 месяцев назад +137

      It makes sense when you take into account that a sphere creates the shortest distance around a center for all points along the surface. In the case of Coulomb’s law, an electron emits an electric field equally in all directions from itself, so the force generated from that field would logically form a sphere. If it formed a cube or an oval or any other shape, that would mean some medium or something is causing an unequal amount of force from a center point

    • @SPHYNX99752
      @SPHYNX99752 4 месяца назад +2

      ​@@julianbell9161 leptons, muons, and peons. ❤

    • @rajdeeppatel9151
      @rajdeeppatel9151 4 месяца назад +9

      The point also is, why tf is Pi everywhere? It is just circumference upon diameter of the most basic geometrical figure we see or can imagine of.

    • @IllKeepALightOn
      @IllKeepALightOn 4 месяца назад

      @@rajdeeppatel9151mmmm pie

    • @SakibHasan-ks2fe
      @SakibHasan-ks2fe 4 месяца назад +3

      The 4π is an addition by us to make our math neat.

  • @chriswhite599
    @chriswhite599 4 месяца назад +2

    The fine structure constant is endlessly fascinating. Thank you so much for this video

    • @jasonodaniel6487
      @jasonodaniel6487 Месяц назад

      He says he failed the test and you find his severe LACK of knowledge fascinating. Insane much?

  • @cperron123
    @cperron123 7 месяцев назад +1

    You tickled my brain 137 times.

  • @KuroKitten
    @KuroKitten Год назад +150

    Okay, I'm so glad you brought up PI towards the end. I was struggling to understand what the difference is between the fine structure constant and something like, yeah, say PI. It's also unitless, yet still describes a pretty fundamental aspect of nature - namely, "roundness". I felt much less crazy knowing far smarter people than me are already thinking about this ^.^

    • @Fundamental117
      @Fundamental117 Год назад +10

      My exact same thought. Pi comes litterly in every single equation so why not 1/137

    • @IveGotWheels
      @IveGotWheels Год назад +67

      I think the difference is that we know what π means in terms of how it relates to the geometry of Euclidean space; that being the constant relationship between the square of the radius and the area of a circle. The confusion around α is that nobody can figure out what relationship it is actually describing. In other words, π is to a circle as α is to a (?). The answer might lay in finding out which mathematical structure can replace the (?).

    • @rayoflight62
      @rayoflight62 Год назад +5

      Alpha is directly responsible for the resonance frequency of the hydrogen atom, 1,420 MHz - or a wavelength of 21 cm.
      If you receive a modulated 21 cm signal (like the Wow!) you can be pretty certain that somebody wants to speak with you.
      Just like in the film "Contact" written by Carl Sagan, they receive a 1,420 MHz signal multiplied by Pi, to reinforce the idea that a rational entity was behind it.
      Alpha also reinforce the idea that the Universe could be somehow the work of a Master Designer...

    • @DavidtheRationalist
      @DavidtheRationalist Год назад +8

      There are more similarities between Fine Structure Constant and Pi than just a number with never-ending digits and a dimensionless value. Both describe a geometric ratio. Whereas Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to diameter, Fine Structure Constant can be shown to be the ratio of geometries that include circular properties. Thus, Fine Structure Constant can be derived from Pi. "The Relationship of the Fine Structure Constant and Pi" by Jeff Yee

    • @ObjectsInMotion
      @ObjectsInMotion Год назад

      Because there are twenty numbers just like the fine structure constant and they all can't be mathematical in nature

  • @coder0xff
    @coder0xff Год назад +16

    The coy teasing of some yet unseen structure deep inside the fabric of our reality fills me with fascination and wonder.

  • @Cloudsurfer69
    @Cloudsurfer69 Месяц назад

    Such a complex script and you make a reading error in the last few sentences haha. Love it.

  • @oliverfranke7650
    @oliverfranke7650 8 месяцев назад +3

    I would agree on alpha being a mathemtical constant like pi or e. Like both it discribes a proporionality between one or more physical properties. They are purely derived from mathematics and have no real physical property. Yet they are fundamental to make our mathematics work with the observations of physics.

    • @gerardvanwilgen9917
      @gerardvanwilgen9917 4 месяца назад

      But if α was larger in the past, then it cannot be a mathematical constant, at least, not exactly. Maybe the true constant is a mathematical limit that is reached when time goes to infinity and the current value of α is then a close approximation of it.

  • @BanditBloodwyn
    @BanditBloodwyn Год назад +307

    In my head, an analogy appears:
    Couldn't we indeed compare Alpha with our commonly known Pi? Imagine our maths doesn't know about the concept of the circle. But everytime, when talking about angles in geometry, this mysterious 3.1415 appears.
    For me it really looks like Alpha is hinting towards a deeper concept or principle we haven't discover yet.

    • @DavidtheRationalist
      @DavidtheRationalist Год назад +73

      There are more similarities between Fine Structure Constant and Pi than just a number with never-ending digits and a dimensionless value. Both describe a geometric ratio. Whereas Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to diameter, Fine Structure Constant can be shown to be the ratio of geometries that include circular properties. Thus, Fine Structure Constant can be derived from Pi. "The Relationship of the Fine Structure Constant and Pi" by Jeff Yee

    • @Deh9o11en8or
      @Deh9o11en8or Год назад +22

      And sometimes it appears in contexts that seem completely unrelated to circles at first glance too.

    • @PhailRaptor
      @PhailRaptor Год назад +12

      @@DavidtheRationalist So the Fine structure Constant is to Pi what a 4th dimensional shape is to a circle?

    • @Unfinished80
      @Unfinished80 Год назад +7

      That's a good point. Pi is also a dimensionless constant resulting from a ratio. Pi is the ratio of a circles circumfrence to its diameter.

    • @UnsolPhysics
      @UnsolPhysics Год назад +8

      @@PhailRaptor more like relationship between pi and the diameter, they are direct relations. But instead of just double, their relation involves all of the other fundamental constant of the universe

  • @Beliar_VR
    @Beliar_VR Год назад +45

    Ok, now Dimension C-137 makes so much sense to me 🤯

  • @stevedavis1437
    @stevedavis1437 25 дней назад

    Excellent post. What is the relationship between the fine structure constant and pi? Is there one?

  • @finalone24
    @finalone24 6 месяцев назад +1

    What really gets me is how the units all get canceled out, leaving just a number. My mind won't accept just a number with no unit of measurement attached.

  • @deathw8sf0rno1
    @deathw8sf0rno1 Год назад +88

    If the fine structure constant wasn't constant (like during the big bang), wouldn't the relationship between the other constants (12:05) also be different during that time? Does that severely change any interactions during that period?

    • @chrystalll1011
      @chrystalll1011 Год назад +13

      I had the same question in my head. Wouldn't it indicate a difference in the behaviors and interactions of the electrons shortly after the big bang?

    • @nias2631
      @nias2631 Год назад +10

      Yep, that is what he was laying out. Once the constant was fixed it fixed in place all the other constants. That dictated all interactions that could possibly occur in an alpha=1/137 universe.

    • @taelim6599
      @taelim6599 Год назад +25

      I think what's going on is that the "fine structure constant" and the actual fine structure number are two different things. The fine structure number is dependent on energy levels and what changed in the history of the universe, while the fine structure constant is the unchanging absolute minimum the fine structure number can be, and is the constant that physics is built around.

    • @milod.5267
      @milod.5267 Год назад

      @@taelim6599 Just thought the same.

    • @GameNationRDF
      @GameNationRDF Год назад +2

      @@taelim6599 very good way of putting it, the semantics is useful here

  • @sheriayn
    @sheriayn Год назад +60

    If you have a chance, watch the movie "The Quiet Earth". Its plot involves the fine structure constant. The ending still haunts me even though I haven't see the movie in almost 20 years.

    • @wmwilliamsiii
      @wmwilliamsiii Год назад +11

      I rented this movie in the mid 90s. A very underrated / unknown film. It was so good, it's also still kind of a nightmare/fantasy of mine.

    • @Aircool212
      @Aircool212 Год назад +12

      @@wmwilliamsiii I've been trying to remember the name of this movie for years, and oddly enough, it was released 37 years ago...

    • @hugofontes5708
      @hugofontes5708 Год назад +6

      @@Aircool212 too bad I probably won't be around to watch it in a hundred years from now

    • @comparatorclock
      @comparatorclock Год назад +1

      @@Aircool212 ITS A SIGN FROM THE GODS lol

    • @chuckintexas
      @chuckintexas Год назад

      @@comparatorclock - Or _THE_ God !

  • @smergthedargon8974
    @smergthedargon8974 Месяц назад +1

    During the "how being dimensionless isn't special" section, I was really hoping he'd throw in something that actually does equal the FSC.

  • @Matthew11L
    @Matthew11L 7 месяцев назад

    So like the Golden Angle 137.5. degrees. The principle is at work in the formation of pine cones, sunflowers, pineapples, and cacti etc. Saying that a given branch or leaf will grow out of the stem approximately 137.5 degrees around the stem relative to the prior branch?

  • @IAmNumber4000
    @IAmNumber4000 Год назад +5

    5:12 I thought he was about to say “When two particles love each other very much…”

  • @atomsofstardust
    @atomsofstardust Год назад +214

    Why am I hearing about this number for the very first time in my life after years of watching various popular science videos like that? Odd it’s not talked about more.

    • @stargazer7644
      @stargazer7644 Год назад +14

      It’s a pretty important thing in the deep math of physics. If you aren’t much into that, you’ll not see it much.

    • @-dennis3755
      @-dennis3755 Год назад +8

      These pop-science channels haven't been around for a super long time all things considered, and there's a lot of depth in physics. While im very surprised I never heard about this in other videos about the constant's (though maybe I did in passing and forgot) it does make sense that it couldve just taken awhile for a channel to get to it for a full video.

    • @xBINARYGODx
      @xBINARYGODx Год назад +2

      @@-dennis3755 well the preface to these channels is what TV used to be - and its not there either (I know, i have watch ALL tv, up to the yar 2010)

    • @thejaramogi1
      @thejaramogi1 Год назад +2

      @atomsofstardust Maybe you've heard about 1/137 before, but it was like a sound wave passing through you at just the right frequency - you didn't realize it was there until someone pointed it out. But don't worry, now that you've heard about it, you can be the life of the physics party with your newfound knowledge!

    • @nickopeters
      @nickopeters Год назад +1

      When I was about to post my Like on your comment--; the number of Likes already-there just-then--; was "137 Likes--!".

  • @marknthetrails7627
    @marknthetrails7627 3 месяца назад

    Love your explanations, 👍✌🖖🥃

  • @natashaparrott8593
    @natashaparrott8593 6 месяцев назад +1

    if alpha = 1 in the beginning and alpha also equals e^2/(4piE0hbarc) 12:02 (sorry for how that looks) then is it the case that the top and bottom of the fraction were equal or did alpha just change to equal that?

  • @OgarnijmytoRazem
    @OgarnijmytoRazem Год назад +18

    In movie Stargate there was a scene when Ra says something like: "You advanced much, you mastered nuclear energy". I always had a feeling that advanced alien wouldn't point out something that average human think is important while in reality being just application of some more profuond science. He (she or it) would rather say something much less obvious but in reality much more important for better understanding the universe. And maybe he would say something like: "You noticed 137. That's impressive. You have a feeling it's important. You have some hypotheses about it. Go and dig dipper." And most of the contact team would be like: "What the...?" And scientists would be blown away and spend rest of their lives studying 137. And unsatisfactory ending of this story could be that some 300 years later scientists would discover that the alien was just trolling them :D

  • @michieal221
    @michieal221 Год назад +285

    So, essentially, alpha is the random seed value for the universe. Seriously, you just described a map-generator taking a seed for the universe's creation.
    BTW, love this video -- it's my new all-time favorite from this channel!

    • @MannyLectro
      @MannyLectro Год назад +18

      Exactly what I thought while watching the video! I suddenly had flashbacks of playing Minecraft and thought: "Wait a minute! Are you telling me that 1/137 is our universe's seed?!"

    • @davidhand9721
      @davidhand9721 Год назад +16

      It's not really like a random number seed if it's used in calculations all the time. A random number seed matters exactly once. If it mattered twice or more, then it wouldn't be random.
      Then there's the fact that it isn't really a constant, and charge isn't really fundamental. It's more like a maximum resolution or stress-sensitive recursion limit, if we are going with the whole computational analogy.
      I'm currently keen on seeing it as a byproduct of neglecting to define a natural unit for charge. We have Planck lengths, times, masses, etc., but you can't get Coulombs (the SI unit of charge) out of there without seeing alpha as the ratio between the electron charge and the natural unit charge squared. It doesn't really tell us why there's a maximum or minimum or what it means, but it does make it a lot less spooky.
      Good try, though. Keep learning and thinking.

    • @B.O.L.T.
      @B.O.L.T. Год назад

      That's what I was thinking.

    • @michaelwerkov3438
      @michaelwerkov3438 Год назад +2

      @@Bone_Thug wroung!

    • @michaelwerkov3438
      @michaelwerkov3438 Год назад

      @@davidhand9721 charge has a maximum and a minimum? Is there anything else like that, other units or significant compound units? Temperature has absolute 0, but that's all I can think of.
      If some basic unit of charge were to be shoehorned in without deriving it, what significant change to the equations might there be? And would rewriting them to consider that offer any insights?

  • @valramos2003
    @valramos2003 7 месяцев назад +1

    Matt: Do you want to know what the video is about?
    Squarespace: No thanks. Just take the money.

  • @muskett00
    @muskett00 8 месяцев назад

    Is it anything to do with the current state of entropy at our current reference in space/ time, relative to C?

  • @LiminalMan777
    @LiminalMan777 Год назад +37

    This was an absolutely fantastic episode, another one I'll be rewatching multiple times

  • @MantasasInHD
    @MantasasInHD Год назад +581

    Around 10 years ago me and a friend of mine started seeing the number 137 pop up everywhere. We treated it as a joke as if it's some sort of special haunted number, trying to research about it also didn't give us answers. Turns out it has a much more significant meaning than I anticipated.

    • @sebastianmichaelrogel6404
      @sebastianmichaelrogel6404 Год назад +21

      Now that's extremely weird, because i can second that.
      O.o

    • @horzathirteen
      @horzathirteen Год назад +86

      Around 10 years ago me and a friend of mine started noticing that the number 137 didn't pop up everywhere in our lives. We've laughed about it ever since: "Can't believe we didn't notice that earlier!" And there we were thinking we were so special.

    • @BassGoThump
      @BassGoThump Год назад +47

      @@horzathirteen
      Hey! This same thing happened with a bunch of different numbers that didn’t keep popping up. It happened with a bunch of different people that don’t even know each other so it can’t be a coincidence.

    • @duroxkilo
      @duroxkilo Год назад +5

      :) add to that my birthday but don;t freak out (00729)

    • @constantinexi6893
      @constantinexi6893 Год назад +4

      This but 136 for me

  • @BachTeen1
    @BachTeen1 Месяц назад

    9:18 my first thought was a list of prime numbers, like 2 3 5 7 11 13 etc, because they work in any number system. Just remember Contact (1997) film🙂

  • @AreUmygrandson
    @AreUmygrandson 6 месяцев назад +16

    137 is my favorite number for some reason. I also really like 37. I see it every where in tv and movies. I’ve mentioned it to several people and they noticed it a lot as well

    • @destinseese34
      @destinseese34 6 месяцев назад

      I see 47 everywhere. It's actually the most commonly occurring random number. There's even a society based around the number 47

    • @fromgamestogod9850
      @fromgamestogod9850 6 месяцев назад

      Perhaps you're seeing these numbers everywhere because God is trying to call you to Him. 137 and 37 are connected to the deep things of God and His nature.
      137 is the 33rd Prime number. 33 is a numeric identifier for the Messiah.
      137x3 = 411
      411 = The English ordinal value of Genesis 1:1 in the KJB (first verse of the Bible)
      411 also = The alphanumeric sum of Hebrew, Greek, & English for "Word"
      Jesus Christ is the "Word" made flesh, the intelligibility of God manifested.
      The Greek gematria (alphanumeric) value for Jesus is 888
      888 = 37x24
      2nd Prime = 3
      4th Prime = 7
      24 & 37 reading vertically above.
      2424 is the sum of prime numbers from 37 to the 37th Prime.
      The alphanumeric value of Jesus Christ in All 3 languages of the Bible (Hebrew, Greek, & English) is this:
      37th Prime + 37th Prime + 37th Prime
      37, often expressed as the digital constituents of 3&7 is God's secret:
      "Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth HIS SECRET unto his servants the prophets." Amos 3:7
      3:7 or 37 is God's secret.
      Amos is the 37th book counting backwards from the end of the Bible. This verse is intentionally placed to draw attention to the fact that the reverse of 37 is 73.
      37x73 = 2701, which is the Hebrew alphanumeric value for the first verse in the Bible (Genesis 1:1).
      The King James Bible, which is God's authoritative word in English was first published in 1611.
      1611 = 537 + 537 + 537
      5 is God's number for grace. This shows 5 concatenated with 37 three times.
      373 is a representation of 37 mirrored about the 7 at the center.
      373 also equals "word" in Greek gematria.
      The 373rd chapter of the Bible contains word# 314159 in the King James Bible (KJB).
      3.14159 = pi
      HIS WORD is the 314159 & 31460th words seen here:
      "The LORD therefore hath performed HIS WORD that he hath spoken..." 2 Chronicles 6:10
      I could go on and on, showing thousands of examples of God using 37 and 137 to show who He is and illustrate His plan. However, time is short. Jesus Christ is returning soon.
      I'll leave you with one final pairing of 37 that illustrates what is coming (pay attention to the chapter/verse notation):
      "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." Hebrews 10:37
      "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Psalm 37:10
      Notice that the 10 and 37 are flipped. This is because these verses are both talking about the same event... a convergence point of the Lord's return. It's two different sides of the same coin, and even the number 10 here is of incredible significance but beyond what I can explain in this comment. If you know God's secret of 37 (Amos 3:7), then it's clear what these two verses are referring to. God has given the address of His return with 37 and 10, but knowing how they map to His written word is key.
      In 2022, we were put on notice that the Lord is returning soon:
      "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
      Revelation 22:20
      God's countdown for His return is based on a reverse sequence. Even among believers, not many are aware of this. However, if you are aware of this fact, then you will know that God is encoding the year that we should be acutely aware that He is coming soon.
      When the notation grouping of 22:20 is flipped you get 20:22.
      2022 is the year that the Lord is letting us know that He is surely coming quickly.
      Time is running out.
      Now is the time to repent and turn to Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior, the God who loves you and redeemed you of your sins by dying on the cross in your place.
      I suggest reading Romans 10:9-10
      Lastly, if you want to see more incredible evidence of God's numeric signatures I suggest looking for the video, "Thy Word Be Verified [Extended]" on the channel Truth is Christ.

  • @wallyman292
    @wallyman292 Год назад +125

    It amazes me just how much humankind has been able to discover and/or figure out about our universe over the past century or so. Definitely has to be one of, if not the actual , most important "renaissance" periods of mankind.

    • @wmpx34
      @wmpx34 Год назад +6

      Flat Earthers: challenge accepted

    • @FilipOscadal
      @FilipOscadal Год назад +3

      the simulation discovers the simulation rules

    • @AlokKumar-tk1ty
      @AlokKumar-tk1ty Год назад +3

      Offcourse
      We are accelerating our knowledge since newton era.

    • @wallyman292
      @wallyman292 Год назад +8

      @@AlokKumar-tk1ty Agreed. My point is the sheer amount of "acceleration" over the past 100 years is just astounding.

    • @Danboi.
      @Danboi. Год назад +4

      Crazy to think this isn't the first time.. there's countless lost civilizations, possibly having up a 1000yrs of studying math

  • @Rose_Harmonic
    @Rose_Harmonic Год назад +50

    The ending the last sentence in space-time every single episode always hits me as hilarious. I noticed the video was getting close to done and my brain started finishing every sentence with space-time to trying to guess when it was finally going to arrive. I had to focus to actually listen to the lore of our finest constant... of space-time.

    • @NobbsAndVagene
      @NobbsAndVagene Год назад +3

      If I asked how high you were, would your answer be "space-time." ?

  • @megandellinger5559
    @megandellinger5559 26 дней назад +2

    This reminds me of versitium’s video about 37

  • @AFlameofVengance
    @AFlameofVengance Месяц назад +1

    Us sending aliens a number to show we are smart.
    The aliens using a different base number system. "These guys are stupid"

  • @jon-noj
    @jon-noj Год назад +46

    just finished reading QED and loved hearing all the references in this video. been enjoying the channel a lot. thank you for all your hard work!

  • @douglasstrother6584
    @douglasstrother6584 Год назад +61

    Arnold Sommerfeld contributions to Physics are under appreciated. He was one of the strong bridges between Classical and Quantum Physics.

    • @aaizner847
      @aaizner847 Год назад +6

      Misread "Schwarzenegger" at first glance. For a sec I was like - I guess his contributions to physics ARE underappreciated!

  • @llort42
    @llort42 4 месяца назад +1

    I always speculated the FSC defined the vacuum state of our universe's chemistry. Hence no need for anxiety regarding false vacuum decay due to Q-tunneling or some extraordinary energy pulse. The energy already depleted to a nominal post BB, allegedly.

  • @mhoop1
    @mhoop1 6 месяцев назад +1

    It's a computational limit for the processor running the simulation
    or
    It's the observable error hidden in 3 dimensional limitations that is plain as day in the 4th dimension, once we know how to access it.
    or
    We only see it as a constant because of our fleeting existence; in geological/astrological time it is/has been/will be easily observed reaching that zero state and the end of existence; which you don't have to bother with when you have 4th dimension understanding and access.
    or
    It's the value that ties gravity to time; without it all gravity ~everywhere~ would act without limitation in a single instance to reach that zero state.

  • @kirksneckchop7873
    @kirksneckchop7873 Год назад +350

    Putting the fine structure constant in a communication seems like a good way to make aliens think the message is just a natural fluke.. after all, it turns up everywhere and in strange places.

    • @olivernorth7418
      @olivernorth7418 Год назад +57

      It turns up everywhere in the ratios between values. It wouldn't make any sense at all for it to pop up encoded in binary in a transmission unless that transmission was sent by an intelligent species.

    • @matchesburn
      @matchesburn Год назад +41

      "Putting the fine structure constant in a communication seems like a good way to make aliens think the message is just a natural fluke.. after all, it turns up everywhere and in strange places"
      ...Radio waves also appear everywhere in nature. But if you received one showing you an imagine of a hydrogen atoms structure, you'd realize quite quickly that it's probably not a naturally-occurring source.

    • @silviafox78
      @silviafox78 Год назад +10

      @@olivernorth7418 - what if the aliens don't have the same binary meanings as us... what if our way of saying 137 in binary is the aliens' way of saying "731" in the same coding? This makes no sense!

    • @kettelbe
      @kettelbe Год назад +1

      Easier with the value of h2 i believe?

    • @ianhopcraft9894
      @ianhopcraft9894 Год назад

      @@matchesburn Unless the receiving aliens treated the signal source as occurring naturally through evolutionary processes. The aliens are as unlikely to share our natural/unnatural dichotomy as they are to use meters and seconds... just saying.. 🙂

  • @simonharris4873
    @simonharris4873 Год назад +29

    When I watch your videos and I understand something you said, it feels like such an achievement. Thanx for that.

  • @danielm6507
    @danielm6507 4 месяца назад +1

    Beautifully explained. I love seeing proof of our universe being designed, programmed, engineered, etc. Imagine what’s left to discover if our “advanced physics” only explains less than 5% of the universe.

    • @k00ij
      @k00ij Месяц назад

      Ehhh, when there are potentially infinite amount universes with potentially infinite amount of different results of big bangs, and potentially infinite amount of configurations, the chance of getting the right situations to produce a viable universe as we know it is 100%

  • @rpgiacon
    @rpgiacon 8 месяцев назад

    Ist this value linked to the complexity of the interactions possible? I saw this number emerge in chaos theory too. So i cant help thinking this number is the one that maximize the complexity of particle interactions

  • @yoink6830
    @yoink6830 Год назад +6

    "I have assuredly found an admirable reason for the value of the fine structure constant, but the YT comment is too small to contain it."
    -fermat probably

  • @Snoop_Dugg
    @Snoop_Dugg Год назад +203

    i'm just imagining if Douglas Adams wrote the meaning of life to be 1/137 in his book.
    It would mess with physicists so hard

    • @calvingrondahl1011
      @calvingrondahl1011 Год назад +21

      Page 137?

    • @joedoucette9028
      @joedoucette9028 Год назад +6

      you are a genius
      As a kinda smart man, who watches programs like this, never have I read a more truthful statement

    • @joedoucette9028
      @joedoucette9028 Год назад +4

      think about the hitchhikers, trying to do the math while holding a joint and a bag of weed. .

    • @cronto_3307
      @cronto_3307 Год назад +1

      Meaning of life is Easy: RESPONSIBILITY!

    • @radtech21
      @radtech21 Год назад +2

      DON’T PANIC!

  • @2flight
    @2flight 7 месяцев назад +4

    I'm glad you mentioned that one last thing: "sets the rules for this particular space time." No reason to think there aren't others.

  • @user-np3nf7dm9q
    @user-np3nf7dm9q 7 месяцев назад

    3-1/2 minutes into the clip the values for the variables are displayed. But in other sites I saw permittivity did NOT match the value shown. In fact C to the 7th power denominator does NOT match the C squared in the numerator. Therefore you cannot have a unitless result. That needs to be fixed!

  • @bencrossley647
    @bencrossley647 Год назад +51

    I love the consistent ending.
    You can always feel that it's coming. I swear I get a dopamine hit just from hearing the word spacetime!

    • @ColdHawk
      @ColdHawk Год назад +1

      Spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime, spacetime! There you go. Enjoy the buzz, and have a great day!

  • @alpha_echo_diDi
    @alpha_echo_diDi Год назад +34

    I trust you guys. As a layman, I think you take me as close to the boundary of our knowledge as anyone else.

    • @RatusMax
      @RatusMax Год назад

      A layman can become an Einstein if he feels like doing it. You just need to start somewhere. Yes, life's problems do get in the way of that sometimes and many can't reach as high. However, the ability is in most humans. Science for all that it is, has not been able to make a concrete engaging way to learn information.
      We have the answer already thanks to social media mining data of billions of minds. Unfortunately, they use it to push ads for profits, keep people coming back to social media, and indulge people to gamble in video games.
      People think that humans like Einstein and Ramanujan were one off geniuses. I don't think that's the case. There are just certain things in society that hinder the learning process. College was like a rollercoaster ride. You get on it, you take a set locked path, you get off of it and move on. Ramanujan was never told what he couldn't do. It was like he was on the Oregon trail. He knew his starting point and his end point. How he got there he would have to decide. So, when he had to go down the wrong path many times, it gave him insight. He probably found a lot of information by doing so. Who knows how many proofs were locked up in his head.
      This is the fundamental failure of society; they don't allow one to walk down the wrong path and explore it. Society actively shames people for failing. They want everyone to walk the same path that everyone else walked and expect change and innovation to occur. Society does NOT support innovation.
      I remember being in physics class and having some TA/PhD student grade my paper. He marked my answer initially wrong. It didn't follow the common ways students would derive the answer. I took a route that derived a known formula in physics lol. He went back up and scratched out the X.
      We need to allow exploration in math and physics again. Not just show a problem and use a generic solution. I like and dislike that they try to give us tools to use without knowing how they were made. On one hand, we don't get bogged down by the sheer complexity of it. On the other hand, when we encounter something we haven't seen before; we are less likely to explore it. They didn't give us the ability to (ok maybe my college...) start the endeavor.
      For example, when I was in HS automotive class, we didn't have all the tools, parts, etc at our disposal to repair a car. We had to improvise. Just because the tools, and parts that made the problem easier wasn't there didn't mean we couldn't solve the problem. That is what's missing nowadays in education. That there are multiple solutions to a problem.

  • @Mikishots
    @Mikishots 9 месяцев назад

    137 is a Pythagorean prime as well. Likely someone mentioned this already in the comments, but I'm not inclined to read all of them.

  • @get5980
    @get5980 7 месяцев назад +4

    It seems to be an analogy of two angles. One is related to the torque in the xy plane, and the other is related to the radial axis in the z and r perpendicular plane. The second one has to do with the temperature of the electron and results in photon emission. The other one is related to the Coulomb interaction. One might think there is only one torque, even for gravity, but there is a second, rather imperceptible torque associated with the angle for temperature. Finally the probability, the randomness is a relationship of 2 vertical angles with a different rate of rotation between them.