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From: aa793@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael J. Wilson)
Subject: Re: Is time continuous?
Message-ID: <D4M01C.GHt@freenet.carleton.ca>
Sender: aa793@freenet3.carleton.ca (Michael J. Wilson)
Reply-To: aa793@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael J. Wilson)
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
References: <sjv-210295115716@146.169.22.52> <1995Feb20.144659.9334@vax.sbu.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 13:27:12 GMT
Lines: 26

In a previous posting, Steve Vickers (sjv@doc.ic.ac.uk) writes:
> In article <1995Feb20.144659.9334@vax.sbu.ac.uk>, schleip@vax.sbu.ac.uk
> wrote:
>> 
>>...
>> 
>> Is it possible that there is a fundamentally "atomic" unit of time? Does time
>> flow in "chunks"? If so, would it be possible to detect them? Could
>> relativistic time dilation manifest by varying the size of these time chunks?
> 
> There is a so-called Planck unit of time, 5.391 x 10^-44 seconds. As I
> understand it, it is not exactly an atomic unit, but time is thought to
> flow unsmoothly at such small periods. But you should ask quantum
> physicists about it.
> 
> Steve Vickers. 


Yes, you should ask physicists about it, but Scientific American had an
article a couple of years back about a proposed "atom switch" for a
computer system.  It is theoretical at Bell Laboritories, but it appears to
make sense that the jumping of the atom from a high or low state, or
inside a walled communication medium, could signal an off or on message.

mike wilson aa793@freenet.carleton.ca

