The First Nuclear Clock Will Test if Fundamental Constants Change – Quanta Magazine
www.quantamagazine.org

An ultra-precise measurement of a transition in the hearts of thorium atoms gives physicists a tool to probe the forces that bind the universe.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    9·
    2 months ago

    It won’t affect much except bleeding edge theoretical physics. Much the way we don’t need relativity to make airplanes fly (but round-earth gravity models help for long distance flights).

    Physical laws are mathematical models that reflect natural forces and predict outcomes (accurately that we can fling cans of passengers across the world safely). It wouldn’t be the first time we discovered that some previously constant forces are actually variable (much the way the force of gravity is affected by distance, noticeable only when you lob something high enough.) We shrug and change the variables, and some physicists near retirement may balk and say it’s ridiculous, as Einstein did regarding Heisenberg’s probability-based quantum mechanics.

    • Billiam@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      It wouldn’t be the first time we discovered that some previously constant forces are actually variable (much the way the force of gravity is affected by distance, noticeable only when you lob something high enough.)

      More specifically to your example, we discovered that gravity isn’t a force at all- it’s a literal curvature of space-time caused by objects with mass, which is why its effects aren’t constant.