Do the laws of physics change?
AVERY THOMPSON: Scientists Stared at Clocks for 14 Years to Try and Catch the Laws of Physics Changing JUL 27, 2018 1
The physical laws governing Earth were the same in the heavens. When we pointed our telescopes started looking at the most distant stars and galaxies in the visible universe, the laws of physics never changed. They are immutable and constant everywhere and for all time. For instance, cesium, one of the more common atoms used in atomic clocks, emits light that oscillates exactly 9,192,631,770 times per second.
This number is dependent on a lot of things, like the strength of the electric forces inside the atoms and various aspects of quantum mechanics. In addition, over the fourteen years this experiment was run the Earth—and thus the atomic clock—moved closer and farther away from the Sun and its gravity, so this experiment is also affected by general relativity. If any of these laws of physics changed since the start of the experiment, the researchers should be able to tell. And in an exhaustively-researched study, the NIST scientists revealed conclusively that they did not. Physics is the same everywhere and for all time. Well, again, probably. At least now we know the laws of physics certainly did not change over that fourteen-year period in the region of our solar system in a way detectable by an atomic clock experiment. This is better than nothing. Really, what this experiment does is make us more confident in the laws we’ve spent centuries discovering. Although absolute proof of their immutability will always elude us, we can be reasonably sure that the laws of physics won’t change. If they haven’t changed noticeably over fourteen years and several trips around the Sun, there’s a very good chance they never will.
1. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a22575842/do-the-universes-rules-ever-change/
AVERY THOMPSON: Scientists Stared at Clocks for 14 Years to Try and Catch the Laws of Physics Changing JUL 27, 2018 1
The physical laws governing Earth were the same in the heavens. When we pointed our telescopes started looking at the most distant stars and galaxies in the visible universe, the laws of physics never changed. They are immutable and constant everywhere and for all time. For instance, cesium, one of the more common atoms used in atomic clocks, emits light that oscillates exactly 9,192,631,770 times per second.
This number is dependent on a lot of things, like the strength of the electric forces inside the atoms and various aspects of quantum mechanics. In addition, over the fourteen years this experiment was run the Earth—and thus the atomic clock—moved closer and farther away from the Sun and its gravity, so this experiment is also affected by general relativity. If any of these laws of physics changed since the start of the experiment, the researchers should be able to tell. And in an exhaustively-researched study, the NIST scientists revealed conclusively that they did not. Physics is the same everywhere and for all time. Well, again, probably. At least now we know the laws of physics certainly did not change over that fourteen-year period in the region of our solar system in a way detectable by an atomic clock experiment. This is better than nothing. Really, what this experiment does is make us more confident in the laws we’ve spent centuries discovering. Although absolute proof of their immutability will always elude us, we can be reasonably sure that the laws of physics won’t change. If they haven’t changed noticeably over fourteen years and several trips around the Sun, there’s a very good chance they never will.
1. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a22575842/do-the-universes-rules-ever-change/
