"It's a very, very beautiful calculation, but it's the best example I know of the relationship between these rather abstract quantities perhaps and something that you can look at in a telescope."
What happens when you try to look too closely at the fabric of the universe? When we gaze at a Planck length, a scale so small that even light becomes useless for observation, physics pushes back.
The Planck length is not just a tiny number, it’s a boundary where gravity, quantum mechanics, and relativity collide. Physicist Brian Cox explains why the measurement is a portal to the deep structure of reality, and why going beyond it may break the boundaries of our understanding.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:45 The importance of measurements
2:40 What are the fundamental quantities?
7:20 How important is the Planck length?
9:20 Why you can’t approach the Planck length
10:30 A theory with more dimensions
13:00 What keeps a star from collapsing?
14:42 The uncertainty principle
17:36 The Planck mass
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About Brian Cox:
Brian Cox obtained a first class honors degree in physics from the University of Manchester in 1995 and in 1998 a Ph.D. In High Energy Particle Physics at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg. He is now Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester, The Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Brian is widely recognized as the foremost communicator for all things scientific, having presented a number of highly acclaimed science programs for the BBC watched by billions internationally including ‘Adventures in Space and Time’ (2021), ‘Universe’ (2021), ‘The Planets’ (2018), ‘Forces of Nature’ (2016), ‘Human Universe’ (2014), ‘Wonders of Life’ (2012), ‘Wonders of the Universe’ (2011) and ‘Wonders of the Solar System’ (2010).
As an author, Brian has also sold over a million books worldwide including ‘Black Holes’, ‘Universal: A Guide to the Cosmos’, ‘Quantum Universe’ and ‘Why Does E=mc2?’ with co-author Professor Jeffrey Forshaw. He has set several world records for his sell-out live tours, including his most recent tour Horizons which has taken in venues across the globe.
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