# Within and Beyond Physical Limits By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-06-27 Currently, the smallest unit of length is called the Planck length. It is derived from three universal constants: the speed of light, the gravitational constant, and the Planck constant. Its significance is that anything smaller than this length can be wrong due to the quantum uncertainty. We can't know what length something is if it's smaller than the Planck length. This physical limit challenges our day-to-day understanding of measurements. Imagine being unable to measure something. If something is, shouldn't it be measurable no matter how short it is? The Planck length means that no matter the human ingenuity in creating a device that measures shorter lengths, we will never be sure if what we are measuring is that length. Things within the probabilistic quantum realm are strange to our current ways of thinking and experiencing life. However, these physical limits help provide perspective, even if, one day, we find ways around these limits through a new paradigm. They position and describe our existence within the universe. But, they also represent an unknowable beyond the physical. What is beyond the observable universe? What is beyond the Planck length? Knowing one's physical existence is bounded by the unknowable allows one to reflect on the nature of being and existence in ways that aren't simply scientific, philosophical, or religious. Embracing the multiplicities allows one to transcend to higher states of consciousness to explore what might be and is insignificant in the final analysis. #### Related Items [[Physics]] [[Measurement]] [[Thinking]] [[Reflection]] [[Universe]] [[Probability]] [[Consciousness]]