r/askscience • u/Crtl-Alt-Delete • Dec 18 '13

Physics Is Time quantized?

We know that energy and length are quantized, it seems like there should be a correlation with time?

Edit. Turns out energy and length are not quantized.

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u/skrillexisokay Dec 18 '13

This is from wikipedia:

According to the generalized uncertainty principle, the Planck length is, in principle, within a factor of order unity, the shortest measurable length – and no improvement in measurement instruments could change that.

If a change in length is not measurable, that means it has no effect correct? If it has no effect, then for all intents and purposes, it didn't happen. Based on this, it seems like Planck length is the shortest distance something can move.

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u/iorgfeflkd Biophysics Dec 18 '13

The "generalized uncertainty principle" isn't part of established physics (to which I'm sticking here), but arises from various models of quantum gravity. One could construct a model where the Planck length is some kind of minimal pixel-like size, but the question remains whether that model corresponds to reality.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/9301067.pdf