Planck.com outline

Planck.com is serving several functions at present. The following is a concise summary indicating the main areas:

A. Verse and Nature Fables

The links here are to pages of rhymed lyric translations from several European languages, 1100-1900, to tumble rhymes (German Schüttelreime, spooneristically rhymed couplets), to collections of natural units fables, and to rhymed verse in English.

BRINDIN PRESS has what is probably overall the web's best verse translation site, with lyric poetry from 9 centuries and over a dozen languages translated by a score of different talents. Some of mine are there. Check it out at http://www.brindin.com/main.htm

B. Quantum Gravity

This section is one I intend to insert, reporting on developments in quantum gravity. As I see it, the two lead QG stories in 2004 are the increased prominence of the causal simplex approach (with computer simulations of the quantum evolution of the universe) exemplified in these two papers:
Emergence of a 4D World from Causal Quantum Gravity
Semiclassical Universe from First Principles
and the crisis in string, which was accompanied by a decline in string research output.
Something else to note is Seth Lloyd's 2005 paper, submitted to Science,
The Computational Universe: Quantum Gravity from Quantum Computation
Another notable 2005 paper is by Laurent Freidel and Artem Starodubtsev
Quantum Gravity in Terms of Topological Observables
John Baez has a nice bunch of snapshots of quantum gravity people at his website:
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/marseille/

C. New Planck Units

I am switching over to a variant of Planck units with |8πG| = 1. Units like these get used a lot in Quantum Gravity. It can be thought of as the "Force" system of natural units because the central coefficient in the Einstein equation gets value one. Sreamlines the main equation of General Relativity and makes a bunch of stuff like that look neater.

Here are the essentials of "Force" natural units----to repeat, they are like ordinary Planck but with the coefficient of the Einstein equation |F|=1
instead of the more usual |G|=1

F = c⁴/(8πG)

When you set that equal one, as people often do to get the cleanest form of Einstein eqn., then since c always = 1 that makes |8πG| = 1
I want to check these units out because they are the intrinsic ones that are getting used in Quantum Gravity, and may be those of physics in the future.
I've collected a few worked examples and stories illustrating the new planck units on a separate page.

The moment one sets
|F|= |c|=|hbar|=|k|=|e|=1
one has a fairly universal set of units and it is interesting to see what some familiar quantities come out to be.

the first thing to ask about is the rough sizes. After that one can ask about basic physics and astronomy constants like Hubble parameter, proton mass, cosmological constant.

First the rough sizes:

pound E8
year E50
handbreadth E33
pace (32 inch) E34
halfmile E37
lightyear E50
food Calorie E-5
lab calorie E-8
quartervolt E-28
green photon energy 10E-28
average earth surface temp E-29
2/3 mph E-9
67 mph E-7
cold air speed of sound E-6
earth orbit speed E-4
one "gee" acceleration E-50
weight of 50 kg sack of cement E-40
power of a 160 watt lightbulb E-49

Now the approximate values of some useful constants:

reciprocal proton mass 2.6E18
electron mass 2.1E-22
Hubble time 1.6E60
Lambda 0.85 E-120
rho-Lambda 0.85 E-120
rho-crit (critical density) 1.16 E-120
more exact earth year 1.1676 E50
more exact lightyear 1.1676 E50
avg earth orbit speed E-4
earth mass 1.38 E33
earth radius 7.86 E40
sun mass 4.6 E38
solar surface temp 2.0E-28
CMB temperature 9.6E-32
earth surface pressure 1.4E-106
earth surface gravity 0.88E-50
common fuel energy released by one O₂ 17E-28
density of water 1.225 E8/E99 = 1.225E-91
solar constant 5.7 E-49/E68 = 5.7E-117

The time scale is important enough to treat separately:
E42 is 1/222 of a minute
E45 is about 4.5 minutes
(to have a named power-of-ten for a convenient time interval, imagine counting out loud rapidly, at the rate of 222 counts a minute, each count is E42 natural time units. A thousand counts is 4 and 1/2 minutes. It just happens that one year is roughly E8 counts, or E50 natural.)

I use named powers of ten as a crutch, in assimilating the sizes. The way I remember earth surface air pressure is to think of the weight of a sack of cement (E-40) on a sq. handwidth area (E66) which gives me an idea of the pressure E-106, and it is 1.4 of those.
I remember the earth radius as 7860 halfmiles (a halfmile being E37) instead of 7.86E40. Named powers of ten, like saying "halfmile" for E37 natural length units, is a way of bridging between humanscale and the scale intrinsic to spacetime, gravity and quantum physics, or perhaps one could say, to nature.

Here are some special numbers that are used with these units, most be factors present in the equation no matter what system of units was being used, but here they sometimes stand out a little more clearly than otherwise.

80/π     this tells the evap time of a BH. cube the mass and multiply by 80/pi

π²/15   tells the per-volume radiant energy density at some temp. quart the temp (raise to fourth) and multiply by π²/15

π²/60   tells the brightness at some temp (power radiated per unit area). quart the temp (raise to fourth) and multiply by π²/60

3zeta(4)/zeta(3) = 2.701 tells the average photon energy at some temp.
just multiply the temperature by 2.701. Since sun temp is 2E-28, the average sunlight photon has energy 5.402E-28---anyway that's the idea.

1 tells the bekenhawking temperature of a BH. just take 1 over the mass.

1/4π tells the Schw. radius of a BH. just take that times the mass.

1/4π tells the area of the BH. take that times the square of the mass.

3 tells the critical density of the universe. just multiply 3 by the square of the hubble parameter

According to report, the density of the universe is at or very close to the critical value. So 3 also tells the actual density of the universe.

6 tells the density of a round planet. divide 6 by the square of the radian time in low orbit.

9 tells the approximate heat capacity per molecule of liquid water: in many solids the heat capacity is about 3 per atom.

29 is the molecular weight of air: handy to know apart from any connection with Planck units.

1/137 (more exactly 1/137.036...) is the coulomb constant expressed in these units. It tells the force between two charges separated by a distance. just multiply the charges by 1/137 and divide by the square of the distance. Of course it is the fine structure constant as well as being the value of the coulomb constant.

1/137 also tells the force between parallel currents (measured on a test segment with length equal half the separation): just multiply the currents by 1/137

(1/137)² tells the energy needed to ionize a hydrogen atom. multiply the rest energy of an electron (2.1E-22) by it and you get a quantity of energy called the Hartree----which is twice the ionization energy (so you still need to divide by two)

in each case I am assuming that the calculation is done in natural units terms, so that I don't have to specify the units each time I say something.

D. Planck units

The Center for Natural Units site features essays concerned with the Planck units as a system of natural units adaptable to human scale and use. In some areas of basic research the Planck units are used instead of conventional (metric) ones. These units were proposed in 1899 by Planck as a general-purpose universal set of natural units for science.

Essays

1. Gbar Units

This is a variant system of Planckian units, where 8 pi G, rather than G itself, has unit value. I intend to insert a few paragraphs about this alternative. Here is a sampling of easy physics problems to give an opportunity to try the units out. Here is a draft definition of the units.

Gbar units gradually taking shape. I added electric units (charge current and voltage) and gave the energy unit a name. The names are still placeholders, in case better name ideas show up. the system is essentially a version of Planck units using Gbar = 8pi G instead of the newtonian G constant as Planck originally did. e is the elementary charge. Our charge unit is exactly 10¹⁸ e, the charge on a billion billion electrons. the unit of energy (called a jot) is about 1/100 of a calorie.

The units are defined by assigning these values to the constants
Gbar = 10^-7 hand³count^-2pound^-1
c = 10⁹ hand count^-1
hbar = 10^-32 jot count
k = 10^-22 jot degree^-1
e = 10^-18 dram (charge unit)
[consider the word "jot" as a placeholder, it is this word for the energy unit that I'd like suggestions for, in case anyone can think of a replacement. that is true for pretty much all these names]

In conventional metric, c = 2.99792458 x 10⁸ meter second^-1 and the other constants are even messier, so there's some attraction to Gbar units getting simple powers of ten for the constants.

with the above powers of ten stipulated then
the time unit (count) comes out 222 to the minute.
the temperature degree turns out to be about half a Fahrenheit
the mass unit pound comes out to 434 grams, roughly one pound.
the length unit hand is 8.09 centimeters (around 3 and 1/4 inches)
the force unit mark is 0.4816 newton, a couple of ounces of force.
the energy unit jot works out to around 0.04 joule or 1/100 of a calorie.
the charge unit dram since it is 10¹⁸ electron's worth, has a metric equivalent of 0.1602 Coulomb
the unit current is about 2/3 of a conventional ampere
the unit voltage quartervolt is about 1/4 of a conventional volt.
the power unit is approx. 1/6 watt.

2. Practical Planck Units

Practical-sized versions of the Planck units — power-of-ten multiples of the small ones and power-of-ten fractions of the large — presented as a postmetric system of adapted traditional units. Practical Planck units were used in writing several sets of nature fables.

3. Intuitive Planck Quantities

An essay describing the Planck quantities as fundamental closely interrelated features of the universe, present in our experience and establishing natural scales. Written in spoken-language style with a minimum of symbolic notation.

4. Natural Units for Scientists and Engineers

Technical definitions of the Planck quantities. Construction of a set of counterparts with exact metric equivalents agreeing with the natural units as accurately as the latter can be measured experimentally. For purposes of comparison, parts of this essay use an earlier system of Planckian units which overlaps but is not identical with Talent-Mile. Some of the material in this essay has been superseded and is pending revision.

E. Physical Constants

Planck units concisely derived

the Planck unit of power

Planck energy

Planck temperature

Planck frequency and Planck time

the Planck/proton mass ratio

NASA's heliocentric gravitational constant

the fine structure constant, alpha

the constants in Maxwell's equations

the constant in Coulomb's law

the adopted values of constants which define the metric system

Questions and comment are welcome: leonardatplanckdotcom

General links
google
http://olympus.het.brown.edu/pipermail/spr/ spr archive, weekly
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/spr/ spr archive by month
http://www.nature.com/nsu/index.html science update
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2000/ physics update
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/ baez site
http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/may/15us2.htmAshtekar profile
Franck Wilczek's article in Physics Today June 2001
http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-11/p12.html
http://www.aip.org/web2/aiphome/pt/vol-55/iss-8/p10.shtml
http://www.aip.org/physnews/update/
http://web.mit.edu/redingtn/www/netadv/welcome.html
http://xxx.lanl.gov
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ NASA calendar
http://www.heavens-above.com./main.asp?Session=kebgcgpjnocjdjfpiglobfhl sky map
http://www.sciforums.com/index.php?s=
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0202008ashtekar quant. geom.
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/0303185 smolin quantum gravity survey
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/9505006 rovelli/smolin spin netwrk +qg
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/9505028smolin topolQFT+qg
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/9910146markopoulou/smolin

http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/support/tools/eqtogal.htmlgalactic conversion tool
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~marsden/bib_src/ms/Book/ marsden's great book
http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/known-math/index/19-XX.html mathematical atlas
http://cgpg.gravity.psu.edu/center grav. phys and geometry
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/hawk.html Andrew Hamilton site
http://www.ams.org/new-in-math/cover/knots2.html jones polynomial

Utilities
http://www.svengato.com/sixj.html 3j and 6j applet

Units
classical systems of units: Greek, Egyptian, Indian, Chinese,...
Mohr and Taylor's article in EJDE August 2000
Science 8 May 1998 article on watt balance to replace metal kilogram
Pictures of NIST watt balance in March 2001 Physics Today
Good graphic diagramming the NIST watt balance, from Ed Williams et al
Rowlett's on-line dictionary of units, with some units-history information
http://www.eeel.nist.gov/811/elec-kilo.html electric kilo
http://www.npl.co.uk/quantum/qtm/fund.html UK watt balance etc
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/planck/node2.html Baez on planck length
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/constants.html Baez on 26? dimensionless constants
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/neutrinos.html Maki matrix
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0201030 Baez on pl. limit to length measurement

Cosmology
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmology_faq.html
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/CosmoCalc.html
Cosmology Tutorial, Ned Wright UCLA
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305179 Lineweaver survey
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March03/Lineweaver/Lineweaver7_7.html Lineweaver Figure 14 small with caption
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March03/Lineweaver/Figures/figure14.jpg Lineweaver's Figure 14
http://panisse.lbl.gov/~evlinder/lcos.pdf Linder's Cosm. Overview
http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~dmw/ast142/Lectures/Lect_16b.pdfastro lecture notes
http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~dmw/ast142/Lectures/astro TOC
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~jpl/cosmo/index.htmlLeahy's tutorial ***
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept02/Reid/frames.htmlReid***
http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/einstein/node1.htmlBaez***
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept02/Kinney/frames.htmlKinney tutorial
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/CosmologicalEquations.html
Cosmological constant, Carroll
http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0004/0004075.pdfCarrol review
http://pancake.uchicago.edu/~carroll/preposterous.html
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Carroll2/frames.html
http://pancake.uchicago.edu/~carroll/notes/ GR lecture notes
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March01/Carroll3/Carroll_contents.html/carroll GR in html
http://www.astronomytoday.com/cosmology/quintessence.html
http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0202/0202008.pdfturner new cosmo survey
http://www.lp01.infn.it/proceedings/turner.pdf alt link to turner survey
http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/cwc/fsc/alpha-papers.html alpha
http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/cwc/fsc.html alpha
http://www.amherst.edu/~gsgreens/progs/cosmology/friedmcourse.htmlanimation
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/approach.htmlblackholestuff
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/colour/primary.htmlcolor
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/Andrew Hamilton
http://background.uchicago.edu/~whu/araa/araa.pdfWayne Hu CMB anisotropy survey paper
http://background.uchicago.edu/~whu/araa/araa.htmlsame, html

Cosmology animations
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~jpl/cosmo/friedman.html#solutionsolution to F eq.
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/Balloon2.html wright's balloon

Quantum Groups
http://www-texdev.mpce.mq.edu.au/Quantum/Quantum/Quantum.htmlRoss Street/Ross Moore/Sydney
http://www.math.nmsu.edu/~bpare/ quantum groups site
http://www.math.nmsu.edu/~bpare/lecture-notes/ln2_5.pdf

Quantum gravity
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/9301061 Louis Crane (1993)
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/9308126 ditto
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/9504038 ditto (1995)
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9905020 Seth Major primer spin netwk
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9705019 Thiemann regulator of matter fields
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9710007 Ashtekar Baez Corichi Krasnov 1/7.85
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0202008ashtekar quant. geom. survey
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9910079 Gaul/Rovelli LQG primer
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0212126 Corichi 1/8.088 (3p)
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0301113 Perez foam/matter
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9709052 Baez spin foam models

Quantum Cosmology
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0304074 Ashtekar,Bojowald,Lewand
http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/0105/0105113.pdfbojowald qc
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/0102/0102069.pdfbojowald, no singularity

Gamma-ray bursts and x-ray sources
http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/index.html
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/neutron/neutron.html

The Quantization of Area
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/q.html Baez Nature 03
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0211076 Dreyer 02
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0212096 Motl 02
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9812002 Hod 98
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9710007 Ashtekar Baez 98
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9411005 Rovelli Smolin 95 discr ar vol
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/9411005 discr. ar vol ditto
http://www.livingreviews.org/Articles/Volume1/1998-1rovelli/index.html Rovelli 98 LQG review
http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/0112/0112038.pdfAshtekar overview
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9910079 Gaul/Rovelli LQG primer

Group rep
http://www.math.nyu.edu/faculty/varadhan/harmonic/lecture9.pdfgeneral
http://www.math.nyu.edu/faculty/varadhan/harmonic/lecture10.pdfSO(3)
http://www.cmth.ph.ic.ac.uk/dimitri/groups/Chapter8.pdf

Mixed
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~houghton/TEACHING/543/543.1.pdf groups
http://web.math.fsu.edu/~quine/gtp/ClassNotes.pdfgroups
http://www.plasma.uu.se/CED/Book/classical electrodynamics
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/atomicorbitals/
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~phys1/java/phys1/MovingCharge/MovingCharge.html
http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/Flash/EM/LightWave/electricfieldwaves2.swf
http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/Stefan_Waner/diff_geom/tc.html
http://www.naturalusa.com/physics/essentialphysics1.pdf
http://www.physics.mq.edu.au/~jcresser/phys301/LectureNotes/
http://www.emmynoether.com/
http://www.emmynoether.com/math.htm
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/spr/2000-05/msg0024719.htmllagrangian
http://whyfiles.org/index.html

Andrei Linde essay
http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/ orig papers
http://pages.infinit.net/starged/exos/intro-e.htm exoplanets
http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/5000lys.html
Einstein Field Equation 1916 Gen Rel just a quote
history of astronomy webpage (NASA)
history of gravity-and-orbits model
http://www.cs.elte.hu/geometry/csikos/dif/dif.html damgo postscript textbook

Lit etc
rhymenet
U. of Toronto poems, first line index
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/montaigne/m-essays_contents.html
http://www.chez.com/trismegiste/montable.htm
http://www.tcforensic.com.au/docs/article10.html
http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/indologie/tamil/cap_search.html
http://www.ariannaonline.com/books/pigs.html
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/04/02_forum_weber.shtml poli sci
Herodotus' story of the camels and ants
hyperdictionary
Webster's Unabridged 1913
Arabian Nights, richard burton 1885
Arabian Nights, aldine 1890, jon.scott

temporary
board
http://www.io.com/~iareth/mainsequence.htmlstar types
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Hogg/Hogg3.htmlHogg/GR
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/energy_gr.htmlE cons
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/spr/2000-02/msg0022165.htmlno E cons GR
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/spr/2002-06/msg0042104.htmlted no E cons
http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/pleiades/pleiades_see.html
http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/pleiades/pleiades_myth.html
http://grape.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~makino/papers/lscrev2_preprint/node1.htmlglob clust supercomputer sim
http://www.livingreviews.org/Articles/Volume5/2002-2benacquista/node4.html glob. clust dyn
http://www.livingreviews.org/Articles/Volume5/2002-2benacquista/node5.htmlMeyland Heggie Glob Clust Internal Dyn, URL?
http://www.ids.ias.edu/~piet/act/astro/ glob clust, stel dyn, Hut
http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~dmw/ast142/Coolsite.htm
http://scholar.uwinnipeg.ca/courses/38/4500.6-001/Cosmology/Friedmann-Equations.htmnice forms of GR equations
http://scholar.uwinnipeg.ca/courses/38/4500.6-001/Cosmology/site_map.htm
http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/galaxies/cmbr.html cmbr pix, recent
http://aether.lbl.gov/www/projects/u2/ cmb dipole graphic
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/9601/9601151.pdfSmoot cmb dipole
http://home.att.net/~numericana/answer/cosmos.htm cmbdipole survey
http://dftuz.unizar.es/~rivero/research/0001033.pdf strange Isaac Barrow story
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/spr/1999-12/msg0020338.htmlTed Bunn on 4piG
http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/BlackHole.htmlBH entropy, merger
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/q.html quantizing area, links to more
http://www.cs.elte.hu/geometry/csikos/dif/dif.html damgo's link
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ApJL/v587n1/17068/brief/17068.abstract.htmlnull observation of spacequantization
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ApJL/v585n2/16893/brief/16893.abstract.htmlnull observation ditto
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020304/020304-5.htmllieu ditto
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0202/0202443.pdf good lieu article
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020114/020114-8.html falling neutrons
http://xxx.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305559gonzalez about big rip
http://xxx.arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0302/0302506.pdfcaldwell big rip
,,,,,

Mohr and Taylor propose that the larger Planck's constant be set equal to 299792458²/135 639 274 × 10^-42 joule second. This would sever the connection between SI and the metal kilogram prototype, causing the kilogram to be defined through its frequency equivalent of 135 639 274 × 10⁴² cycles per second (see M&T paragraph 8)— resolution 7 of the 1999 GCPM called for redefinition of kilogram along these lines.