[FOM] Infinitely divisible spacetime?

[W.Taylor at math.canterbury.ac.nz]

Quoting katzmik at macs.biu.ac.il:

> The idea that spacetime really is continuous is very interesting but how does
> this square with the common perception that infinite divisibility breaks down
> at the Planck scale?

It may do so, but not in the way that Democritus, Dalton, Rutherford and all
of modern science had it.  These people envisaged an ultimate "uncuttable"
unit (the very word "atom" meant precisely that!)  The Planck scale
infinite-divisibility breakdown is of a much vaguer and ephemeral sort.
There may be no continuum down there, but there are no atoms either,
as those envisaged above.  (We ignore that atoms turned out to be a bit
cuttable after all, though not the way Democritus was arguing.)

However, I too am a physics tyro, so I stand to be corrected.

Bill Taylor


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