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Sci Tech
Space-time close up
QUANTIZATION IMPLIES that close up, space-time is like a photograph: the apparent smoothness breaks up into grainy patches. Normally we would never notice the grains. Their effects become important at very high energies.
According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, events involving very fast-moving objects look different to an observer moving at the same speed as the object compared with an observer who is stationary relative to the object.
Time seems to move more and more slowly for the stationary observer.
To relate the two said frames of reference, one must certainly perform a mathematical adjustment called the Lorentz transformation. If space-time is grainy, the particles' positions can't be pinned down any more accurately than the grain size. There is an unavoidable uncertainty equal to the Planck distance. Similarly, times can't be specified any more accurately than the Planck time.
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