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Re:UHZ1: NASA Telescopes Discover Record-Breaking Black Hole by fsckboy on Monday November 06, 2023 @10:28PM (#38172874)
Planck the scientist? The Planck length is 10 to the −20 times the diameter of a proton. Why are we using something so small to talk about galactic distances?
Re:UHZ1: NASA Telescopes Discover Record-Breaking Black Hole by eagle2com on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @02:37AM (#38174179)
We are using it as another point in the comparison between our everyday lives scale, and the extremes of our universe.

It turns out, as beings living in the 10^0m scale, we are much closer to the size of the universe 10^27, than to the smallest possible distance, 10^-35.

Which boggles my mind, I did not imagine the Planck length to be this small, if it even makes sense to use the word "imagine".

Re:UHZ1: NASA Telescopes Discover Record-Breaking Black Hole by seanw444 on Tuesday November 07, 2023 @10:34AM (#38177974)
That is actually fascinating.
Re:UHZ1: NASA Telescopes Discover Record-Breaking Black Hole by fsckboy on Wednesday November 08, 2023 @04:13PM (#38197127)
"yes! thus," i suggest, "my comment asking the question that led to this should not be at -4! i feel like my comment got crushed in the collapse of a star!"
Re:UHZ1: NASA Telescopes Discover Record-Breaking Black Hole by brummm on Wednesday November 08, 2023 @12:24PM (#38193719)
Just a note, the Planck lenght is not the smallest possible distance. The plank length is where quantum and graviational effects are of the same "size" and as such, both our theory for gravity and our theory for quantum physics are guaranteed to break down.

It has nothing to do with smallest possible length or something like that and it's just a common mistake in non-scientific physics articles that has sadly spread.

Re:UHZ1: NASA Telescopes Discover Record-Breaking Black Hole by eagle2com on Sunday November 19, 2023 @10:56AM (#38333786)
Would it be more correct to say it is the smallest _measurable_ length, just like the "size" of the universe is just the limit of what we can observe (measure) ?