Physics's Need for Interval Uncertainty and How It Explains Why Physical Space Is (at Least) 3-Dimensional
- DOI
- 10.2991/eusflat-19.2019.25How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- divergence problem in physics interval uncertainty fuzzy uncertainty physical dimension
- Abstract
One of the fundamental problems of modern physics is the problem of divergence: e.g., when we try to compute the overall energy of the electric field generated by a charged elementary particle, we get a physically meaningless infinite value. In this paper, we show that one way to avoid these infinities is to take into account that measurements are always imprecise -- and thus, we never get the exact values of the physical quantities, only intervals of possible values. We also show that 3-dimensional space is the simplest one in which such interval uncertainty is inevitable. This may explain why the physical space is (at least) 3-dimensional.
- Copyright
- © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Olga Kosheleva AU - Vladik Kreinovich PY - 2019/08 DA - 2019/08 TI - Physics's Need for Interval Uncertainty and How It Explains Why Physical Space Is (at Least) 3-Dimensional BT - Proceedings of the 11th Conference of the European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT 2019) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 166 EP - 169 SN - 2589-6644 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/eusflat-19.2019.25 DO - 10.2991/eusflat-19.2019.25 ID - Kosheleva2019/08 ER -