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The Planck Length.
Though little known outside of the scientific community, the Planck Length was first calculated by Max Planck in 1899.
Although he received a Nobel Prize in 1918 for his work in quantum theory, the Planck Length remained on the edges of science until much later.
In 1959, a chemist at the University of Minnesota, C. Alden Mead, began writing about it. He thought the Planck Length should get more scientific attention.
In 2001, Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Laureate (2004) and the director of MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics, agreed with Mead. Through letters in the magazine, Physics Today, they concurred.
Wilczek then wrote a series of articles about the Planck Length that opened the doors to a wider discussion.
In our modest way, we hope that this project opens the doors for high school students and their teachers (and the general public). You can take it as a given that the Planck Length is the smallest measurement of a length, or you can read much more about it; there are several reference just below the line.
On most pages there are references below the line just below the two arrows (yes, just below). There is a very good Wikipedia reference, plus Wilczek references, and more. Although most of the physics community agrees with Mead-Wilczek, there is a small percentage who do not. Yet, by taking constants of nature, starting with the speed of light, both the largest and smallest numbers can be calculated. Making sense of them is another story.
Let's look a little deeper.
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