Cosmology Views

Exchanges after my post about the Fabric of Space

link to that post

initial comment:

Would Einstein or Newton have made the same observations and deductions if they were alive today?

my reply:

Newton used absolute position and absolute time. Unlike relativity, Newton treated physics as background dependent. Every measurement was directly associated with a physical location in space.

Experiments in physics are not relative to the observer's location.

Einstein had the space-time context within only the moving observer's reference frame. Positions were always relative to the observer.


another, unrelated comment:



The quantum field is measurable as its dipoles produce measurable electric and magnetic fields. The Casmir effect and several other properties are also measurable. The quantum field is the fabric of space and its wavelengths and frequencies give space its spatial dimensions and clock rates.

my reply:

you say " The quantum field is the fabric of space and its wavelengths and frequencies give space its spatial dimensions and clock rates."

However, both the plank length and time are derived from our definition of the time increment which was used for the measurement of the velocity of light.

The observer always defines the dimensions and their scaling for measurements. The observer also defines the time increments.

No physical object  defines how it is measured using which scaled dimensions and which time increment.


If the fabric of time could be thought of like a 3-D topological map for part of Earth's surface. The map enables measurements of features of the surface being represented..

The physical surface cannot define how it is measured. We create the map, not the surface.

from Wikipedia:

Planck length is the smallest distance about which current, experimentally corroborated, models of physics can make meaningful statements. At such small distances, the conventional laws of macro-physics no longer apply, and even relativistic physics requires special treatment.

This limitation is based on using light and its fixed velocity as the measurement method.

If we use another measurement method (I can't think of one right now), not light, then the new limitation is based on that new method.

Electric and magnetic fields are crucial in the universe. However, the universe, its supposed fabric, its supposed dimensions, and its supposed time increment are not defined by the rate of propagation of these synchronized fields.



(end of my long reply)


A reply to my comment:

 The quantum field is measurable as its dipoles produce measurable electric and magnetic fields. The Casmir effect and several other properties are also measurable. The quantum field is the fabric of space and its wavelengths and frequencies give space its spatial dimensions and clock rates.

my reply:

A fictitious black hole is irrelevant.

quantum fluctuations do not define the time increment, we do.

Thornhill did a Space News "What is time?" long ago; it is clear but here I will add a little.

There are processes in the universe which are not instantaneous like: motion, chemical reactions and light. We use time to measure them.

We defined the time increment, a second, and measured the velocity of light using that time increment.  We assume the propagation of these E-M fields is constant in a vacuum so it served as a basis for several critical constants. That measurement of c also defined the basic length increment of 1 meter.

We can measure distances with our defined length increment and a velocity with our time increment. The elapsed time required for a completed chemical reaction also applies to equations in chemistry which also uses the time increment.

Whatever is happening at the quantum level, we defined the length and time increments, not the quantum field suggested for a fabric of space.

The fictitious fabric of space cannot define how we measure it. The quantum field does not affect chemical reactions, or do you propose it does?