The Fine Structure Constant is simply the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in the electronic structure of the atom. This is why it is dimensionless, because it is a ratio of velocities. Do the math, and you will be able to derive wonderful new interpretations for Planck's constant and quantum physics. Try it!
Hey everyone, the "alien civilisation" thing is just a thought experiment. What he means is, the fine structure constant is something independent of our unit system and perspective. Whether it is practical to send such a message is more or less irrelevant.
LOL!!! Bravo! Irrelevant indeed, especially if "c" really is constant, at least for idiotic physicists and wanna-be space explorers. Think, if intelligent alien humanoids live more than a few hundred light years from here, by the time they would get that ridiculous message, "we" will probably be self-extincted. Anyway, to more advanced humanoids,137 and 1/137... and a bunch of other digitized Earth text may be indistinguishable from chaotic stellar RF noise. Furthermore, the fact that "alpha" mystifies "the great & famous" QM maths-physics stars, while being considered a sacred grail cow, proves that nobody understands QM. I think that's because QM can't help anyone understand the reality of the universal field of being (the totality of the present moment we might call cosmic reality). QM's high priests & groupies may as well be schizophrenics floating around in an intergalactic fog of dark energy. Yep, otherwise why say that the decimal version of 1/137... is its "precise" value, when it's really just a mathematical construct, a fuzzy label in a speculative bubble universe in the minds of humanoids who can't see the difference between maps & symbols and infinitely complex environmental realities? The maths are not the field phenomena they represent, approximately, at best. At worst, QM notions & shibboleths are as misleading as Ptolemaic myths, fictions & dogma.
Alpha's not independent of our perspective or unit system. Its rooted in oour fundamental appication of vision, memory, and cognition. And it does hold a certain type of dimension. The problem is not that its sooo mystified or complex , actually the opposite... its really simple and we tend to over look the great simplicity of light in matter. ...like a fish in the ocean.
the speed of light and energy scale relation constants e.g. alpha have not produced one chip This useless speculation entertains the masses so they will not notice Biden with the cooperation of Republicans just signed a non funded bill to rebuild our semiconductor -chip industry.The same people who exported chip manufacturing to Taiwan and China (NOT DESIGNS)
A true original. To my knowledge he's the first on RU-vid to bring this subject into the spotlight. And even after 13.7 years there's not a word those contemporary experts can add to it.
I love that little animation of the electrons around an atom... Having seen it (and animated it myself) as little plastic spheres dancing around a collection of slightly larger plastic spheres so many times, that animation really helps get over the quantum particle/wave wassaname. Great stuff.
Very interesting Fact. I am speculating why the fine structure constant is 1 divided with 4*π^3 + π^2 + π and the FSC always tell us about the force the EM field will influence two EM particles by. It is so strage, that I am sure there is a higher meaning behind it. Thank for your information. In speciel circumstances, the FSC ~ 1/137 ~ e^2 div 4*π ~1 div C who tell us, that a person who have a velocity at 3,6 km/h for a resting observer will fell the moving of a secund as 1-(1/3 x 10^(-10)) secund. It always tell us, that a meter from us always will have to have an equal length in time, namely (1/3 x 10^(-10)) secunds, more than witch time, we measure on our watchs. I think it give us a intuative way to think about spacetime, timedialation and space curving. But surely you can derive the same about time and space from Einsteins GR.
If i am not mistaken you could just factor out a pi to get 1/(π(4π^2 + π + 1)). Then ok if we were to solve what you did 1/(3.14159 * (4 * 9.86959 + 3.14159 + 1)) 1/(3.14159 * (39.47836 + 3.14159 + 1)) 1/(3.14159 * 43.76095) = 1/137.29593 Interesting I know it’s the square but 4-2-1 is another interesting number along with 3x+1 ;-) Personally I like 1/137 better then the 137.2953 bc it makes a beautiful pattern 0.0072992700729920072992700 like a spin or a dancing electron should be 😜
Would love to know more about the fine structure constant. Came across it as a layman a few years ago and believe it links a lot of other constants and dictates (or rather expresses) the structure of the universe itself; hence your observation that we may not be here to discuss it
How is this prof called? I love the sixty symbols videos with him even more than the other ones. He reminds me a lot of the greatest teacher I ever had back when I still had to go to school/high-school but I haven't seen his name in the descriptions of some videos I checked.
"Independent of units", because it IS the Number of Theoretical assembly of logarithmic coordination condensation modulation cause-effect. When Reciproction-recirculation is imposed line-of-sight superposition Singularity, THIS is the conic-cyclonic modulo-geometrical mechanism of inside-outside holographic time-timing presence. (Not your average number, the "Recursion to the Mean" Quiescent conglomeration @.dt zero-infinity sync-duration floating point embodiment) Definitely Mathemagical. Truly fitting the constants of elemental e-Pi-i sync-duration connectivity.., in Principle.
At one time I took a maths course in which the prof asked what was special about 137. He mentioned that it's a prime, and some other characteristics, when a student commented that we were in Room 137. So one more reason 137 is special.
Thanks for nice and simple explanation about Fine Structure Constant. I was actually going to watch the movie, 'UFO (2018)'. But before that wanted to understand what does the FSC means in physics, as the movie description in IMDB is telling about this dimensionless constant.
When sending messahes to outer space, they only use the simplest bases: units ("tap out 137 beeps," as you say) and, to send "images", binary: on/off or long/short signals making up a rectangle with prime number side lengths.
What do the Twistors of Roger Penrose and the Hopf Fibrations of Eric Weinstein and the "Belt Trick" of Paul Dirac have in common? In Spinors it takes two complete turns to get down the "rabbit hole" (Alpha Funnel 3D--->4D) to produce one twist cycle (1 Quantum unit). Can both Matter and Energy be described as "Quanta" of Spatial Curvature? (A string is revealed to be a twisted cord when viewed up close.) Mass= 1/Length, with each twist cycle of the 4D Hypertube proportional to Planck’s Constant. In this model Alpha equals the compactification ratio within the twistor cone, which is approximately 1/137. 1= Hypertubule diameter at 4D interface 137= Cone’s larger end diameter at 3D interface where the photons are absorbed or emitted. The 4D twisted Hypertubule gets longer or shorter as twisting or untwisting occurs. (720 degrees per twist cycle.)
@lotrfreak2010 0-9 are our base numbers, and we use the next 4 to show how our place value works. You could continue up to at least 23 if you wanted to be sure to get the message across. 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, add one value onto the left, repeat sequence. Stopping at ten wouldn't give them an example of how the system repeats
Isn't the vacuum permittivity and a spatial factor required to arrive at 1/137? Is the formula complete at that or are those factors all rolled into the h cross?
What units are those numbers in? I tried mks: e = 1.60219x10^-19 Coulombs (Ampere-seconds) h-bar = 6.6262x10-34 Joule-seconds / 2pi (kg-m^2/s) c = 2.99792x10^8 m/s e^2/(h-bar*c) has units of Ampere^2 * seconds^4 / (kilograms*meters^3) Even after converting Amperes in terms of Newtons per meter, I'm left with seconds^2/meters^3 What input units yield a unitless 1/137?
@danthemanzizzle Since it is a "pure number" as mentioned in the vid, it is a ratio that comes out the same no matter what measurement is used. For instance; when using th radian system to measure an angle the value would be the same whether oyu measured in inches or centimeters or anything. Since a radian is the ratio between the radius and the length of the arc, any unit used will cancel itself out in the division. Aren't Pure Numbers awwesome?
as it travels the light would be red shifted by the expansion of space, so a 45 second transmittion with 137 peaks might stretch to have 138 peaks or more depending on how far it went, yes we could compensate if we were directing the signal to a specific star and knew the distance, but I still think Carl Sagan's idea of prime numbers is the best way to do it.
I agree, you are completely correct. I was simply using the word equation in repetition of what he said. A better word would be formula, or more specifically, it has a formual.
@lee155912000 For example velocity is measured in km/h or mi/h or m/s, all of these represent distance over time. Pi, on the other hand, is the ratio of the circle's circumference to its diameter, so it's distance/distance (cm/cm or km/km), thus they cancel each other out, leaving the number 'adimensional'. In this particular number, the dimensions also cancel out.
Wouldn't sending this number out to the universe only work if the alien civilization that receives it has a base 10 number system? Would the number be different in a base 13 or whatever base you use system? I'm bad at the maths so I don't really know.
a question just popped in my head...if there are universes which have different physics so that it allows different chemical elements would we be able to bring them into our own universe and make use of them?..I'm thinking no, but would like to hear a physicists opinion
It should be noted that he's using the non-Si version of the fine structure constant where Coulomb's constant is normalized to 1 and is dimensionless.. If you type what he put into your calculator, you will not get anything close to 1/137. To get the fine structure constant, multiply by what he wrote by: (1/(4*pi*epsilon-knot)) Where epsilon knot = the electric permittivity constant: 8.854187817…*10^-12 F/m This will result in about: 1/137.035999...
@RasmusLastname It'd probably be conveyed through number of filled squares on a grid or something, rather than the actual symbols '1', '3' and '7'. Probably not that way exactly but you know what I mean.
He said "recherché"; when used in english conversation it generally refers to something chosen deliberately which has a rare quality or specific use, ie; "You may find this collection of late 19th century vacuum cleaner nozzles a little recherché." HTH
why is there a b in there? isn't that hexadecimal? So does alien binary start with 0000=0 or 0000=1 or maybe they go with 3 or 5 digit bits? these problems would be easy enough to solve if they were nearby but if you have to wait 20 years between responses. . .
It would be interesting the results on equations if you mess with decimal parts of the number to see how it will mess will all the universe. I mean, in a parallel universe when the 20th decimal value changed a tiny bit. How compatible this universe would be compared with ours.
Red shift would alter the frequency and wavelength of the wave, not the number of peaks in the wave. The way signals are generally transmitted through radio waves is either by Amplitude Modulation or Frequency Modulation (AM or FM), rather than attempting to explain thoroughly in the comments character limit I'd suggest checking out the Wiki page on Radio, under the Transmitter and Modulation subsection, this should give you some idea on how these processes work. Hope you find it helpful.
But that is not the equation for the fine structure constant. He left off the 4 pi times the permittivity of free space from the denominator. Plus, it is highly likely the fine structure constant changes over cosmological time, like the Hubble constant does.
I found this explanation "when we go to calculate simple processes, such as two electrons scattering off one another through the exchange of photons, we only need to consider the simple case of one photon exchange -- every additional photon you consider is less important by a factor of 1/137"
@Valendros I found a large poster on what to do if you're the first person to make contact with aliens but in this case, You'd put down 14 squares, in the dust or on paper or what have you. in each of these squares put dots representing each number. Then you'd repeat the process with the symbols 0-13 (so they understand our place value system and that we operate mostly in base 10) Then you'd draw a simple math problem. :.+::=:::. and repeat it with numbers. Do this a few times
sorry I think what I mean is the byte, that's the name for the grouping of bits right? Though if I remember correctly it is two groupings of four that make a byte. Though non of it really matters since the only aliens that could actually interact meaningfully with, would be ones that could travel to this planet.
how does '1-3-7' show up in Morse Code? I noticed a pattern in Morse Code which suggested to me that 137 is connected to the idEA of DATA or informatio/inPHOmation transfer. aha ;)
Well when talking about pieces of information in binary there are bytes but we also know about cubits which are 1, 0, and neither. So the chance of being able to communicate successfully is quite low especially when you consider "Visible light" is less than one percent of the spectrum.
this may be stupid but wouldnt it be a bad idea to send out 137 because isnt there a chance that a alian race could of came up with a different type of science or it turned out that our thoeres or wrong
I never understood the big deal about this approximation. a^-1 = 137.035999. 137 is an okay approximation, but it's off by >3% which is not exactly amazing.
If you would use feet instead of meter in each constant you'd get the same value. If you would mix them you would get something like m/ft, which is dimensionless, but has a conversion factor, in this case 0.3048. Divide your result by the conversion factor and you get the same result.
We discovered the fine structure constant in 1916, so an 18 years difference isn't really that much time compared to the probability that they will have had radio transimitters for at least the same amount of time as us, if not longer. If we have had transmitters for about114 years and we have known about the constant for about 96 years, that ratio goes to 1,100%, as the limit is taken as time goes to infinity of a function of time. So it's safe to say they were founded at roughly the same time.
I believe I saw something on that years ago, before things like youtube. It was either in the movie Contact or I saw it on some SETI special on the old history channel. Either way I believe that is the agreed on message to send to show intelligent life.
On the beauty of the fine structure constant FSC), read Barrow, John (2002) The Constants of Nature. Pantheon. There are 3 known attractive/repulsive forces: electromagnetism (EMF), gravity, and the strong force holding the nucleus together. Each force has dimensionless "coupling constant". FSC is the coupling constant for EMF. Forces are mediated by boson exchange. The boson mediating EMF is the photon. The FSC thus underlies almost all of physics, chemistry, biology and technology.
The base used to represent a number only affects how it is written not its numerical value. So137 in anyother base is still the same number. The same way 11 in base 2 is the same as 3in base 10.
Can somebody explain why this number is more mysterious than all the other constants in physics, like for example the gravitational constant? What's the difference? Is it because nobody understands why it has this particular formula?
@MisterMANada It could be different in different universes, but he didn't say it would be good to send to different universes; it would be good to send to other planets in our own universe (own galaxy really..)
I was reading in the new scientist that a 'new' study by reasearchers J.King and J.Webb that the alpha constant may vary spatially. Wouldn't this contradict lorentz symmetry and einstein's equations? Also wouldn't that mean that we live in a very restricted part of the universe?
one problem would be it would only last for a fraction of a second. I don't know if we have the technology to send a signal like that. The bigger problem with that is that it could look just like a random pulsar, the main thing you want to convey is that the signal is artificial, just the fact you can send a radio signal means you are intelligent, you don't need to add math to impress.
@VoxSweden Was thinking the same thing. We might aswell have been working with a system other than the decimal one and it would still feel "natural" to us.
The first man in this video, i love him, i wish to find more of him if there is another channel I may find him, i find him very Feynman-esqu and it's excellent.
The point was that if we want to send something that will almost surely not be confused with just random static, something basic to the universe would be the most likely option.
I found out that the fine structure is a variable in the Hawking-Bekenstein entropy of an electron mass. To see my proof there is a video I made on my channel.
The number is definitely dimensionless. Defining alpha with c expressed in feet/s or miles/s does change it completely, because those are arbitrary measurements. meters/s is the SI unit for velocity, and because the other constants in the expression are defined according to this same SI model, it does result in a perfectly dimensionless ratio. Aliens would find it to be the same, because regardless of their units of measurement, the *ratio* between the constants would yield the same result.
I have a theory . it's half of the .14that makes up pi. it's the space between the wavelength of mass. as shown by the 3 figures of the gravitational constant.
