{"id":9382,"date":"2018-10-31T13:58:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T20:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=9382"},"modified":"2018-11-18T14:01:46","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T21:01:46","slug":"137-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2018\/10\/31\/137-2\/","title":{"rendered":"137"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/surprising-science\/why-the-number-137-is-one-of-the-greatest-mysteries-in-physics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>from The Big Think<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"headline h1\">Why the number 137 is one of the greatest mysteries in physics<\/h1>\n<p>Famous physicists like Richard Feynman think 137 holds the answers to the Universe.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"post-author__name\" href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/community\/paul-ratner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by PAUL RATNER<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WlSLIW0gZtk\" width=\"480\" height=\"292\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li>The <strong>fine structure constant<\/strong> has mystified scientists since the 1800s.<\/li>\n<li>The number <strong>1\/137<\/strong> might hold the clues to the Grand Unified Theory.<\/li>\n<li>Relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics are unified by the number.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"rebelltitem1\" class=\"rebellt-item is--desktop col1\" data-id=\"1\" data-href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/surprising-science\/why-the-number-137-is-one-of-the-greatest-mysteries-in-physics?rebelltpage=1#rebelltitem1\">\n<p>Does the Universe around us have a fundamental structure that can be glimpsed through special numbers?<\/p>\n<p>The brilliant physicist <strong>Richard Feynman<\/strong> (1918-1988) famously thought so, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.secretsinplainsight.com\/why-137\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">saying<\/a> there is a number that all theoretical physicists of worth should &#8220;worry about&#8221;. He called it &#8220;one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a <strong>magic number <\/strong>that comes to us with no understanding by man&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>That magic number, called the <strong>fine structure constant<\/strong>, is a fundamental constant, with a value which nearly equals <strong>1\/137<\/strong>. Or 1\/137.03599913, to be precise. It is denoted by the Greek letter <strong>alpha &#8211; \u03b1.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s special about alpha is that it&#8217;s regarded as the best example of a <strong>pure number,<\/strong> one that doesn&#8217;t need units. It actually combines three of nature&#8217;s fundamental constants &#8211; the speed of light, the electric charge carried by one electron, and the Planck&#8217;s constant, as explains physicist and astrobiologist <strong>Paul Davies<\/strong> to <a href=\"https:\/\/cosmosmagazine.com\/mathematics\/number-fascinates-physicists-above-all-others\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cosmos magazine.<\/a> Appearing at the intersection of such key areas of physics as relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics is what gives 1\/137 its allure.<\/p>\n<p>Physicist<strong> Laurence Eaves,<\/strong> a professor at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nottingham.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of Nottingham,<\/a> thinks the number 137 would be the one you&#8217;d signal to the aliens to indicate that we have some measure of mastery over our planet and understand quantum mechanics. The aliens would know the number as well, especially if they developed advanced sciences.<\/p>\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/surprising-science\/why-the-number-137-is-one-of-the-greatest-mysteries-in-physics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click to continue at The Big Think<\/a> ]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from The Big Think Why the number 137 is one of the greatest mysteries in physics Famous physicists like Richard Feynman think 137 holds the answers to the Universe. by PAUL RATNER \ufeff The fine structure constant has mystified scientists since the 1800s. The number 1\/137 might hold the clues to the Grand Unified Theory. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}