Is there any limit to how small some thing can be.?

Question

Or how big something can be.

Answer 1

The answer is: we don't know.

Theoretically according to the standard model of physics the answer would be no.

According to string theory the answer would be the Plank Length would be the limit--the size of a single string. Anything below that would be meaningless. I forget the size of the Plank length but I remember an analogy that puts it in perspective:

If you blew up a hydrogen atom up to the size of our solar system, the plank length would be roughly the size of a tree

Answer 2

Yes of course - you cannot reduce a substance further than an atom of that substance, because if you do, it isn't that substance anymore.
However, there are things smaller than subatomic particles, and science will no doubt continue to make progress on this issue and enlighten us more.
How big? This has limits too, a person cannot grow beyond certain limits due to the skeletal structure (tallest human ever 272cm)
A body's volume increases three fold (volume) whereas the skeleton that supports it has to rely on the cross sectional area (a two fold measurement) of bones to support the weight of the body....this obviously must have a limit.

Answer 3

The Greek philosopher Zeno addressed the paradox of smallness by insisting that anything that exists could be cut in half. Of course, that relates only to material things, and to the limits of human perception. It raises the question of what a "thing" is -- how can you ascertain the material existence of something imperceptible (remembering that quantum physics, the science of bigness and smallness) is based on mathematical models, conjectures and various kinds of imaging - not empirical observation.

For a beautiful discussion of the question of big and small, and their relation, see Sally Potter's film YES.

Answer 4

Well, the shortest possible length that has any meaning, according to physics, is called the Planck Length, approximately 1.6 x 10^(-35) meters. Quantum theory says that it is impossible to measure position to a precision less than the Planck length, or elapsed time with a precision greater than the time light would take to travel a Planck length.

The only things smaller than that are the issues that my girlfriend and I fight about.

Answer 5

No.

At one time and atom was thought to be the smallest thing.

Now there is talk that on the quantum level there are things infinitely smaller. Same as with how big something can be.

Answer 6

A single cell being is the bacteria, which is the smallest thing. The smallest charge is the ion.
Space is the biggest, its size is infinite and everything is contained in it.

Answer 7

Nano is the smallest form of technology, or thing that can be, its smaller that anything and completley invisible (To the naked Eye). And things can be as big as you want them, although the stress of holding it all together will eventually get to it.

Answer 8

Technically the smallest anything can be is the Planck length which (and this is off the top of my head) is about 10^-44m, which is very very very small.

Answer 9

I don't think there is any limit so far

Answer 10

No there is no limit