how small can you get? is small infinite?

Answer 1

You should know

Answer 2

That's a really great question!!

And we don't know the answer. And, unfortunately, it's looking like we never will, no matter how much science we do or how advanced our technology becomes because of quantum effects on very small scales.

The Planck length at 1.6*10^(-35) meters is the smallest unit of space. It is a "natural unit" arising from the physical constants of the speed of light, Planck's constant (did you see that coming?) and the gravitational constant. It is impossible (really impossible, even given infinite technology) to measure any unit of length smaller than a Planck length as a result of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and General Relativity. It is on the order of Planck length's that we get into quantum gravity - something that we do not understand at all. At lengths shorter than the Planck length or times shorter than the Planck time, theoretically, space and time break down and become nothing like we know them in our macro space.

So in a physical sense, you cannot get as small as you like. And small is not infinite, or at least, if it is, we would never be able to know. So for all intensive purposes, it isn't infinite.


However, in a mathematical sense, small is infinite as a previous answerer described. If you are given any defined number epsilon > 0 (epsilon greater than 0), there is some number delta such that epsilon > delta > 0 (epsilon is greater than delta which is greater than zero). An ancient Greek philosopher, Zeno, actually posed several paradoxes about cutting times and distances infinitely. However, it appears that the universe is bounded by physical constants such as the speed of light and Planck's constant.

Answer 3

It depends on what the definition of "small" is. For example, if by "small" you mean "positive and as small as possible", then yes, you can get infinitely close to 0 without actually hitting it. Name some small number -- then divide it by 2, and you get a smaller number. That number, in turn, can be divided by 2 -- to get another, yet smaller. This can go on for infinity, and you won't ever reach 0.

However, in the physical world, "small" has its limits. Unfortunately, we don't yet understand well what they are. We know that the world around us is "quantized", meaning that it consists of really small particles, but they can't be further broken down into smaller particles. Furthermore, physicists think that there is something called "a Planck distance", which is the shortest possible unit of length: below that unit of length, space and time do not exist ! It's still a hypothesis, but quantum physicists are working on it. So, in the physical world, you can't go infinitely small.

Answer 4

One can get as small as one likes. That is, given a small number e > 0, there is an even smaller number d such that e > d > 0. I think you mean is small infinitesimal? In usual math, a number x greater than 0 is not infinitesimal. If you take 1/x, the result is not infinity but a huge finite number. However, you can define infinitesimals. I know of two systems that do that. The non-standard numbers of Robinson (also called hyperreal numbers) include infinite numbers - their inverses are smaller than 1/n for any finite number n but greater than 0. The Conway numbers (also called surreal numbers) generalize the transfinite ordinal numbers such as w (omega), so that 1/w serves as an infinitesimal for these numbers.

All this revolves around 0, and in a certain sense, 0 and infinity are opposites to each other. You can't fly to infinity, but neither can you get the temperature to absolute zero.

Answer 5

great answers but infinitely small just like infinitely massive can't be infinite if so they are the same thing, they are extemes of the inbetween, which is what the universe consists of.
How long is a piece of string?
The answer is twice the distance from its center to either of its ends. The universe works on a similar principal.

Answer 6

Venus, you astound me! At last someone else with a serious take on science and the specific knowledge to back it up. Your number looks right, from memory

I have a feeling that the Planck distance may also be related to the distance that light can travel in the shortest possible unit of time so that, short of instantaneous communication, nothing can exist within a shorter space than that at which some form of interaction (communication in the broadest possible sense) can take place.

Answer 7

To be infinitely small, you'd have to take up a large amount of negative space. In the way you mean, the answer is no.

As for me, I can't get that small. We'll after I die and decompose, I'll be about as small as I can get.

Answer 8

Q. What is the smallest thing known to man?

The smallest bit of matter can be found in the branch of physics called particle physics. You may know that atoms are made of electrons, protons and neutrons. So far, nobody has been able to break an electron into anything smaller. However, in the case of protons and neutrons it has been found that they are made of smaller things called hadrons and that these are made of smaller things called quarks. At this very moment scientists around the world are trying to find out if quarks are made of even smaller things.

Answer 9

Don't u know anything about the quantom?

No, small isn't infinite

Also, small isn't true!
You are small in compare with sth, nth small at all
and to compare, u must tell how small u r

the samallest thing is the size of our smallest measuring machine, And nth smaller exists.

Answer 10

We don't know the answer.

There could be some minimal size for any partical, but on the other hand there could be pure energy with no size or singularity object (with no size) (Like some say a black hole is).

It could be both, for example :
Anything that exists for a non zero duration of time has minimal size, while zero size things can exists for only zero time...

Answer 11

I've never tried to get small before, I'll give it a go later on and see how I manage.