The way a clock works is that it takes something that moves at a very predictable speed and make it give off a tick every time it has moved an equally precisely measured distance.
A time unit is always between two ticks. A single tick is not a time unit. That's why we say that clocks go tick-tock or tick-tick.
The smallest possible time unit we can register is in other words a function of the smallest possible ruler and the fastest possible speed.
Since all matter in the closed state moves at the speed of light, we have a ready supply of stuff moving at a very precise speed.
Our smallest possible ruler is the electron.
The smallest possible time unit is therefore the time it takes a photon to cross an electron. If something happens faster than this, the time laps cannot be registered in any way.
An instantaneous event is anything that happens faster than it takes a photon to cross an electron.
The electron as a clock
We get: Time = Size of matter in the open state / Speed of matter in the closed state
No comments:
Post a Comment