Question Setting aside worries about quantum mechanics, would it be possible for there to be a plank of wood which is an irrational number (say, pi) of feet in length?

Accepted:
April 8, 2009

Comments

Sure. For one thing, nature doesn't care about our arbitrary units. Suppose we have a plank of wood that''s exactly a foot long. Now I define a new unit: a schfoot. Anything one foot long is exactly pi schfeet long. Is there any mystery about things being pi schfeet long?

Also -- since we're setting aside issues about quanta and, I assume, the possibility that space is granular, can't we make sense of something changing length continuously? A twig that's a foot long and growing will pass through an uncountable number of irrational lengths on its way from being a foot long to being two feet long.

Question Setting aside worries about quantum mechanics, would it be possible for there to be a plank of wood which is an irrational number (say, pi) of feet in length? Accepted:April 8, 2009

Question Setting aside worries about quantum mechanics, would it be possible for there to be a plank of wood which is an irrational number (say, pi) of feet in length?

Accepted:
April 8, 2009