has perplexed physicists for more than a century.
That number is 0.00729735256—approximately 1/137. This is the fine-structure constant. It appears everywhere in the equations of quantum physics.
The fine-structure constant, designated by the Greek letter alpha (α), is one of the many constants of nature that power our laws of physics, like the speed of light, the gravitational constant, or Planck’s constant....the fine-structure constant sets the “strength” of the electromagnetic force.
The fine-structure constant sets the size of atoms.
--A larger value means that electrons would be closer to nuclei, making them more tightly bound and less able to participate in chemical bonds.
--A smaller value would mean that electrons were less tightly bound, making atoms and molecules less stable.
Paul Dirac, a theoretical physicist who is considered one of the founders of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, called it “the most fundamental unsolved problem in physics.”
Physicists do not know why our universe ended up with this particular value for the fine-structure constant, or many of the other fundamental constants, for that matter.
Paul Dirac, a theoretical physicist who is considered one of the founders of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, called it “the most fundamental unsolved problem in physics.”
Physicists do not know why our universe ended up with this particular value for the fine-structure constant, or many of the other fundamental constants, for that matter.
Many conventional physicists believe that these constants were set more or less randomly at the beginning of the universe.
......a professing atheist, Richard Feynman poetically mused that “you might say the ‘hand of God’ wrote that number, and ‘we don’t know how He pushed His pencil.’
Psalm 147:5 declares, “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.”
ICR
