I'd like to know more about the ways in which space is quantized, and the implications of a minimum distance.

If you have any links to the writings of real physicists that deal with this topic, I'd love read more.

So far, the only websites I've found with useful, correct, and accessible descriptions are wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_length

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime#Quantized_spacetime



I'm branching this off of http://mingle2.com/topic/show/323618?page=10

Wikipedia is a very unreliable resource and it can't be used as a source on college papers at least it couldn't on mine.

spacetime, just more man made jibberish...

here is a nice site with some history...

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Physics-Quantum-Theory-Mechanics.htm

Wikipedia is not as good as a recognized textbook or peer reviewed paper, but its far, far better that most random sites you will find on the web.




MM, I like that this site is so focused on actual quotes from historically significant physicist.

Wikipedia is a perfectly acceptable place to gather sources, not to use as a source itself.

Check the citations at the bottom and then go there, for that its the best thing since sliced bread.

Anyone who just reads any online article without confirming the sources is a dunce.

However after years of using wiki, I have found it to be EXTREMELY accurate for a layman to get an idea on how things work. Very minor gripes when it gets to the nitty gritty details.

I love that site. Haven't been there for a long time since I got a new computer. Thanks.

Yes wiki is great for a layman. It lacks in some areas for sure, so you don't want to take it as gospel. Yes you should always confirm the sources if you are serious.

Wiki is a great source for laymen, but an extremely bad source for any subject subjected to a high degree of technical expertise as the field of experts shrinks with content.

If one claimed, for example, that the Earth had 9 billion inhabitants now, a horde of people with sufficient knowledge and resources to know better would descend upon the post like the plague and get the incorrect posting changed. Such is the nature of peer review.

One could, for fun, write an intelligent article about the electron and inject that it's radius is 2.81793289458 instead of the accurate number of 2.817940289458 x 10^-15 m and the odds are no one would even notice because there is little chance of peer review to that level.

I have found several Wiki articles in my field to be wrong. I have also found that new discoveries by direct observation do not translate to instant Wiki corrections.

A good theory of the quantization of space/time and a recent hit in the field.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=splitting-time-from-space

I discount Wikipedia entirely. It's just made up facts and useless information.

I discount your opinion entirely.

I spend a lot of time researching, and have found exactly the opposite to be true. Wiki is 90%+ on its accuracy, and when you check the sources listed at the bottom you find that often the explanations from wiki have been taken directly from the source material.

i like that, i've thought that if scientists took time out of the equation, the results would be more true to fact. i'm by no means a physicist, but even to me that makes much more sense....

The theory uses some "out of the box" thinking. He proposes a change in state of quantum reality which allows different properties under different conditions. Matter and plasma do this so why not space and gravity? Some aspects seem to work where nothing worked before. Some aspects like the explanation of dark matter, really don't track well with reality, but it may be a new direction.

it could affect lots of things, like mainly red shift and how far things are really away from us. i suspect things are much closer than they say they are.

I was hoping Spider and Wux would bring some of their dialog on this topic to this thread. I'm really fascinated by this topic.

I reject any model that combines quantized distance with predetermined allowable locations that follow any geometric pattern....but space might still be quantized, and even filled with predetermined allowable locations, which are irregular in their placement.