Fine Structure Constant
Quotes tagged as "fine-structure-constant"
Showing 1-30 of 73 https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/fine-structure-constant
=
“The bridge between the electron and the other elementary particles
is provided by the fine structure constant. ... An expanded form of the constant leads to equations that define the transformation of
electromagnetic energy into electron mass/energy, ...”
― Malcolm H. Mac Gregor
#
“Arnold Sommerfeld generalized Bohr's model to include
elliptical orbits in three dimensions. He treated the problem relativistically (using Einstein's formula for the increase of mass with velocity), ... According to historian Max Jammer, this success of Sommerfeld's
fine-structure formula "served also as an indirect confirmation
of Einstein's relativistic formula for the velocity dependence of inertia mass.”
― Stephen G. Brush
#
“QED [quantum electrodynamics] reduces ... "all of chemistry and most of physics,"
to one basic interaction, the fundamental coupling of a photon to electric charge.
The strength of this coupling remains, however, as a pure number,
the so-called fine-structure constant, which is a parameter of QED
that QED itself is powerless to predict.”
― Frank Wilczek
#
“There are considerable mysteries surrounding
the strange values that Nature's actual particles
have for their mass and charge. For example,
there is the unexplained 'fine structure constant' ...
governing the strength of electromagnetic interactions, ....”
― Roger Penrose
#
“If alpha [the fine-structure constant] were bigger than it really is
, we should not be able to distinguish matter from ether [
the vacuum, nothingness], and our task to disentangle the
natural laws would be hopelessly difficult.
The fact however that alpha has just its value 1/137 is certainly
no chance but itself a law of nature. It is clear that the explanation
of this number must be the central problem of natural philosophy.”
― Max Born

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/fine-structure-constant?page=3
=====

After reading all 73 opinions many times, my conclusion is:
The closest physical analog to the Fine Structure Constant effect is
some kind of '' Butterfly effect '' when very tiny ''quantum butterfly flapping''
makes a very great difference in the Universe on many levels of Existence. ========

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)