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"...all properties and actions in the physical world are therefore non-deterministic to some degree." With the degree of non-determinism increasing dramatically as we approach scales on the order of a Planck Length. At these scales spacetime is filled with swarms of virtual particles which flicker in and out of existence and where spacetime itself loses all continuity. Rather than being the four-dimensional continuum of everyday experience, here it becomes a porous, chaotic "quantum foam" having almost no continuity whatsoever. This is the world of the lepton -- dimensionless (insofar as we can tell) particles that somehow retain their identities as such in spite of it all. A world so bizarre that it utterly defies description.

"... At these scales spacetime is filled with swarms of virtual particles which flicker in and out of existence and where spacetime itself loses all continuity..."

That's pure poetry. Who said science should be rigid, stringent domain ?

Even among quantum physicists, the "quantum foam" model is losing a bit of traction... On the other hand, you know all of those particles (called virtual particles), what do you think happens to their ability to create a gravitational field while in existence?

"Even among quantum physicists, the "quantum foam" model is losing a bit of traction..."

Those guys don't know a Good Thing when they've got one. Personally, I love the way the stuff lathers up in the shower. I tried to intro it to that girl in my avatar, but my timing was bad, as you can see.

Einstein's made-up BS equation E = mc² says, "Yes, they create a gravitational field, them having mass an' all (however transient)."

But as it seems we're now in the era of Pheel-Good Phyzikz, (where the innumerate moron reigns supreme) I'd say, "Who knows? Probably not. It just doesn't feel Right somehow."

(Psst: I strongly disagree with those QM heretics for whom the 'quantum foam' theory is losing traction. It's got to do with the fact that at scales approaching the Planck Length, spacetime coordinates themselves become indeterminate. Which, btw, leads one to ask, "At PL-scales, is motion quantized?")

One could argue that if space is quantized and and time is quantized, then movement, being derivative of both by default, is also quantized, but let me ask this: Are Planck-Time and Planck-Space mere mathematical entities, or are these refutable in the good old Karl Popper tradition ?

I don't really see how you can have a quantized derivative, considering a derivative gives you instantaneous rates of change. If space and time is quantized, then something can be either here or there, but nowhere in between (the same with time). Mathematically, a derivative give you values for the "in-betweens." Oops!

It's not just me, it's all of us: if the concept of Planck Time and the concept of Planck Length are both viable for any use whatsoever, then the concept of quantized movement is inevitable, being a derivative of the other two.

Call it "pulsed travel" if you like, I don't mind... A concept derives other concepts, there's nothing any one can do about it. Our whole perception is based on concepts, our proven knowledge included.

This however does not answer my earlier question:

Are these two refutable? Did anyone ever devised an experiment, even a thought experiment to prove or dis-prove the actual existence of the concepts of Planck Length and Planck Time as actual natural phenomena ?

Einstein proved with an actual sensor that individual photons do exist as such, according to Max Planck's prediction, thus proving the quantization of light, and even got a feud with Lenard for it, just to make the incident more "juicy" and memorable, for us mortals.

The Geiger Counter is an actual device to prove the actual quantization of a particle beam, into individual units

Has any similar attempts been made to test the actual existence of quantized length or time ?

It's as simple question as that

Whoa! Don't jump the gun!

First, the origin of Plank's length and time came from some guy just trying to divide these parameters with Plank's constant. It's been considered an interesting possibility, but it has never been proven as fact. So, no one really knows whether we live on a continuum or a sort of pixel monitor screen.

Second, Einstein proved under certain circumstances light acts like particles, he did not bust the wavelength nature of light. In fact, later, Louis-Victor-Pierre-Raymond, 7th duc de Broglie went on to prove the wave nature of particles...

The issue and answer to the question is not "either-or," it's "both." I suppose an even better question is "how???"

This is exactly the issue that's at the heart of one of the most important arguments between quantum physicists and the Borg Relativistic physicists...

The old term "space/time continuum" wasn't just a fancy word for "space." The continuum explicitly implied the smooth and "connected" nature of space. Some quantum physicists argue that the "continuum" is definitely NOT a continuum, and to continue using this Relativisticly-coined term is an error.

I had a little quanta,
he was smaller than a flea,
and when I talked of Einstein,
he'd try to Bohr a hole in me.

What a nice link !

I couldn't see the intro pic (), but Brewster has Halloween sussed.

Yes indeedy. A nice link! Thanks! One GA point 4U.

You know, Alice and Bob also figure prominently in discussions of cryptography so, how can we be sure they're even having this conversation? There may be a Man-In-The-Middle lurking in that jaggy line...

Prolly works for AT&T. And Cheney.

Your World, Delivered...to the NSA.

Thanks for the point ! I didn't even beg for one this time

Yeah, Bob & Alice are very cool. It's great fun to try it with very diddy primes and code/uncode a number. Even with some slippery maths tricks it gets tricky after the primes are much more than a few digits long. I don't s'pose PGP would bother NSA too much. Pin pricks in newspapers might be safer !

"Pin pricks in newspapers might be safer"

Better than in condoms. Do pin pricks even need condoms?

If you like primes (I like primes), then you might wanna check out this poster of the 46th Mersenne Prime: 2_^43112609-1 discovered August 23, 2008 by Edson Smith/GIMPS. (Bit jockies take note: All Mersenne primes consist entirely of binary 1s. A Mersenne prime is defined as M = 2_^P-1 where both M and P are prime numbers.)

The poster features all 12,978,189 digits of M46 squeezed into a 29" x 40" (73.7 cm x 101.6 cm) rectangle for $99 USD. You'll need a jeweler's loupe or magnifying glass to discern the less-than-1-pt-font digits.

Rachel not included.

I like her better when she's taking a shower...

What? Oh! Never mind.

Kris, I like your new avatar. Is that your old MD calling the AEC following your exam? Is that the Red Phone? You can stop coughing now.

Glad you like, he's sort of 'borrowed' . Our old rotating-dial phones, that everybody chucked away a couple of decades back, now go for about £50 ! A genuine candlestick set must be a fortune........hmmm, £265 ain't that bad for a bit of nostalgia. At least I wouldn't feel so silly saying "Ahoy-hoy" ! In ye olde days, a doctor (usually female) would give school kids a cursory check-up. It's sooo hard to think about coughing when they do that !!

Janet is cool, it wouldn't have been quite the same in a bath. These idiots missed a chance - they could have avoided trying to remake a classic, and just done "The Squirrels" .

Bell said "Ahoy ahoy?" Jeeze!

I've always thought he said "Shut yer stinking gob you tit. Can't you see I'm on the phone? Your kind really makes me puke you mallodorous heap of parrot droppings!!!" Or something along those lines.

Or am I confusing this with another movie? I hate getting old.

"In ye olde days, a doctor (usually female) would give school kids a cursory check-up. It's sooo hard to think about coughing when they do that !!"

Didn't The Doors release a song about that grisly practice?

Hello (Bend Over, Won't You Tell Me Your Name?)

Monty Burns always answers the phone by saying "Ahoy hoy."

By the way, who the hell is Owen Wilson???

Whoever he is, he's gotta be better than Owen Money.