The Mystery Of The Fine Structure Constant

The Fine Structure Constant makes it possible for atoms to form. Without it, nothing would exist. So what created the Fine Structure Constant?

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[MichaelSmith-ijut]

A constant fine structure is what my fellow gym goers call me

[EssentialParadox]

Joe, it would be great if your shorts linked onto longer form videos on the subject.

[Seven-ydbv]

My 8yr old son watches your videos with me. I love seeing him light up with his I Get It Face then he runs off with the tablet because he wants to know more. Nothing else can be better than that. I'm commenting on the tablet that he wants so I have to give it to him now before he takes it fr

[mydogbrian]

*> The Universe was designed for life.* When of it is deadly to life.
- And using the same reasoning; meteors are designed to fly!

[Gcrusher-wzle]

Or, hear me out, it doesn't have to be either of these. Whatever the constant is, some kind of interactions will occur and eventually patterns will emerge which eventually (and this is a pretty big handwave, but it has to happen somehow) become a form of life. If the universe were different, we would be too. It's like the puddle analogy of an anthropomorphized puddle looking at how well the hole it's in fits it, when obviously, it has fit the hole, not the other way around, and that's what defines it as a puddle instead of just water; just a we define life based on how it fits the universe compared to dead matter which does not follow those specific properties.

[jeremysmith]

All this time I thought 42 was the most important number.

[wally_g]

Great short and I would love to hear more about its history, discovery, different means of observing, etc!

[VosperCDN]

Having only heard of it recently, this short is a fine way to quickly explain it. Thanks.

[AsymmetricThrust]

Just popping in to say I’m liking your new format for shorts. Hope it goes over well with you’re existing audience and widens your reach.

[GiddyThis]

PBS Spacetime has a great video on this for anyone who wants more.

[DeDraconis]

Joe, I would love it immensely if you did a video on the Planck Constant and all the Planck Units. Specifically because as a literary person and not a math person, I was always taught that "defining something through self reference is bad." Every time I look at it it seems like a house of mirrors of different Planck Units defining other Planck Units and there's no way to get to them without them.

[michaelmaloskyjr]

This is a good seque to the more cosmological "Fine Tuning" videos on YT.
After reviewing many, many of those videos, I'm convinced there's nothing much to do about nothing in these discussions, definitely not a real debate since the two "sides" are nowhere near equal in validity:
Of course humans see fine tuning; we're basically looking at ourselves as successful hominids benefiting from said ratios and constants.
Imagine picking the winning lottery ticket in Powerball, then claiming the entire history of the lottery apparatus, all the tickets sold were simply designed so that you would eventually win one day.
You may FEEL special, but demonstrate you are? No, not by any mathematical stretch of the imagination.
Weak anthropomorphism in a nutshell.

[reasonitician]

Love your stuff, don't love shorts.

[ZZT]

Thank you! I have to subscribe now after 2 incredible shorts❤️

[yyyyyk]

Good explanation.
And if there are other universes with different fine structure constant that lead to the existence of different sentient beings in them, those beings would think that THEIR constants are "just right" for them.

[BaguetteBot]

@Joe Scott I have an idea for a video for you: Considering that some rich people have allocated their fortunes to their pets when they died, which is the richest animal on the planet? And is that the richest animal ever?

[RustyWalker]

The fine tuning argument fails once you realise that stopping the clock when life forms is an arbitrary choice made by apologists.
If you follow through on what else the constants of the universe predict, you have as much support for the conclusion that the universe is fine-tuned, not for life, but to exterminate any life that has the misfortune to form.
Our own Sun will eventually engulf our planet, and we can predict any planet in the habitable zone of its star will meet the same fate.
If one does survive, the ultimate fate of the universe looks to include heat death.
So, which is more plausible: the universe is fine-tuned for life, or fine-tuned to exterminate it?

[lukasmakarios]

I heard that there are about 19-20 of these fine tuned constants. Could you make a video to explain them all?

[bokononbokomaru]

Numerology...there are an abundance of math patterns in the observable universe. There is nothing to indicate agency was responsible for any of them

[DS-rydd]

As a ratio of the electron to light speed is only true of ground state hydrogen, a more relevant description would be the probability that an electron will emit or absorb a photon in atoms.