Steve K

I'm not a physicist (along with linear algebra, I almost failed physics in college). I was hoping some physicists here could help me out.

I was thinking about Planck distance and time in terms of a "digital" universe. i.e. Consider the universe as a grid, where each space is Planck distance apart and every Planck time a move can be made. It would seem that the fastest "smooth" travel possible would be one Planck distance every Planck time. Anything faster would be teleporting from one space to a non-adjacent space. So, I looked up the numbers and divided them out and came to 160 million meters per second (Planck distance/Planck time).

I figured that that sounded about right for the speed of light (wouldn't that be convienent!) Alas, when I looked that up, it said 300 million meters per second.

So my questions are:
Why this discrepancy?
Is there any significance to the 160 million meters per second value?
Is the fact that light travels faster than that at all related to its wave/particle duality?

Thanks

- Steve

Jesse

I think the difference may just be because the numbers are rounded off somewhat--the planck time is indeed supposed to be the time it would take light to cross one planck length.

According to this page the Planck time is 1.35125 * 10^-43 seconds, and this page says the Planck length is 4.05096 * 10^-35 meters, so length/time gives 2.99793 * 10^8 m/s, which according to this page is just about right for light speed.

Steve K

Cool! Muchos gracias!

- Steve