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Ultimate units

Based on the Universe itself
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The first bit is the most practical, then it gets difficult.

Use the Planck time as the basic unit of time, the Planck length as the unit of length, the velocity of light in vacuo as the unit of velocity, the mass of the electron as the unit of mass and the charge of the electron as the unit of electrical charge. Define other units from these terms. Rather than using the usual decimal multiple units, use the binary multiple system kibi-, mebi- and so forth. No subunits are needed, because nothing physical can be said to exist at a smaller scale than the basic units.

Two more, less practical, proposals. Base the calendar on these units. This is not in itself difficult, but finding a date to count from is unless an event in the early Universe can be pinpointed. Clearly the Big Bang is the most important such event, but it can't be precisely dated. Therefore, provisionally, choose the Julian date until a better one comes along. This would unfortunately mean there would be negative dates.

Clearly days would be a peculiar number of units in length, as would years, but these are parochial considerations based on an insignificant little blue-green planet orbiting an unregarded yellow sun rather than anything that really matters.

The other proposal, even less practical, is to get the whole population of the planet to abandon their current counting systems in favour of binary. Rather than using cumbersome long strings of ones and zeroes, however, they are to say the sounds /i/ for one and /o/ for zero separated by glottal stops, and there would be no ambiguity.

There you go, it's all sorted.

nineteenthly, Mar 11 2008

Planck Units http://en.wikipedia...g/wiki/Planck_units
"God's Units" [kevinthenerd, Jun 09 2008]

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       If you have a unit of time and of distance, you don't need to use the speed of light as a unit of speed.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 11 2008
  

       True, fair enough, but i think it amounts to the same thing anyway.
nineteenthly, Mar 11 2008
  

       If the universe is expanding, is the Planck length a constant, and if so, am I going to have to revise my Planck length every Planck time to compensate?
RayfordSteele, Mar 11 2008
  

       "What time is it?"   

       "Wait a Planck ... it's 6.0221415e23."   

       "Damn, late again. Thanks."
nuclear hobo, Mar 11 2008
  

       //The other proposal,.... There you go, it's all sorted.//   

       Bun city.
wagster, Mar 11 2008
  

       I got your ultimate unit >right here<.
Noexit, Mar 11 2008
  

       If you have a unit of time and of distance then one unit of distance can only be travelled in one unit of time by one unit of matter that must fit exactly in one unit of distance. This is illogical and does not describe reality.   

       So time and space are not divisible in units and I will go one step further and say that matter is also not divisible in units. Yep the universe is one blur.   

       So rather then putting everything in order by these or any other scientific rules and units I propose we divide our living space in stretches of how long they feel, in units of tiredness from walking for example.   

       And time also, possibly in units of boredom.   

       What with everybody having different perceptions and feelings we would need much more communication to understand eachother. Or at least we could have a good laugh about how strange everything is.   

       And even if it does matter, does it matter that it matters?
zeno, Mar 11 2008
  

       [zeno], you made me smile and i also note the parallel between what you say and your paradoxes of motion.   

       I think you are talking about measuring Gegend or the spatiality of Dasein, whereas i am talking about Cartesian space-time, which is less real in a way. I suppose you could, and probably people do, divide their lives up into how long they see themselves as having, which is maybe why time goes faster as one gets older. I like the blobby world too, but i also like the crystal world.
nineteenthly, Mar 12 2008
  

       As for the crystal world, well I did bun you.
zeno, Mar 12 2008
  

       Thanks. However, how are we to know the whole of physics, which tells us these things, isn't just provisional and useful? Aliens might have a completely different set of theories and concepts that works just as well, so these units might be just as provincial as miles, days and pounds.
nineteenthly, Mar 12 2008
  

       That is exactly why only the blurred vision of the WSOGM is really universally true.
zeno, Mar 13 2008
  

       Let's just do everything from Planck units. That sounds easier.   

       As far as binary, I'd rather see us switch to octal or hexadecimal.
kevinthenerd, Jun 09 2008
  


 

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