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Articles: My Thoughts | In quest of Infinity-06
- Prof. venkata ramanamurty mallajosyula
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Understanding ‘the small’ is Unavoidable
You might still say: “All this is fine, but I am still not clear why this digression from the Universe into nuclear physics, particle physics and all that.” Point well taken, and maybe I should say something to address that concern of yours before taking leave. You see, the reason why I am currently insisting on talking about all this is to give you some idea of physics at very small distances. When I say very small distances, I mean incredibly small distances like 10-40 cm and things like that!
Thirty or forty years ago, few physicists bothered about such matters but in the context of not only the ultimate of particle physics but also in the context of early cosmology, such considerations have become both vital and inescapable.
If we want to know something about the actual birth of the Universe and its early history, that is to say when it was around 10-30 seconds old [no, I am not crazy!], then the kind of physics that I am trying to thrust on you becomes unavoidable. Once upon a time, the entire Universe had a radius of only that size! No, I am not kidding; it is absolutely a fact; we have plenty of incontrovertible scientific evidence to support that view.
Physics on such incredibly small scales of length and time [this is called Planck scale after Max Planck who drew attention to their importance], is expected to be vastly different from what we are used to at the present time, and on the scales we are accustomed to explore in. In short, if we want to know something about the Baby Universe, then we had better start paying attention to such issues.
The very beginning...
You may say : “Hey, wait a minute! Why at all do we want to know about the Baby Universe? In any case, I am not too sure I would believe all that you might say; it was so long ago!” Good point, but you see, today’s astrophysicists are so smart, if you tell them, “Look the Baby Universe was like so,” they would reply, “Is that so? We will go out and check and get back.” They then go out and look into the sky – and they have amazing tools now to do that, and when they are finished, they would report, “Mister, we have bad news for you.
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