1 hour ago · Science · 0 comments

I ran across a cranky formula for π based on physical constants here and decided to play around with it. The source describes λ as “wavelength (chosen in the microwave region)” and I thought perhaps you could chose a value of λ to make the equation work. But as a comment pointed out, the bracketed expression is simply 2hc², independent of λ, due to Planck’s blackbody law. That means we can simplify the expression above to Now the values of h and c are known. In fact, they’re now exactly known by definition: other SI units are defined in terms of h and c. The mass of an electron is known to 11 significant figures. But E in the equation above is “Total energy of the universe.” I don’t even know what that means. Does it refer to the observable universe? Does it include dark energy? Does it include the energy equivalent of mass? I asked a couple LLMs that the total energy of the universe might mean and what its value might be, and they said something like “Depends. It might be zero. It…

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