• Question: Why do the fundamental constants have the values they have?

    Asked by salej014 to Emma, Jimmy, Janet, Niall, Simon on 18 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: James Holloway

      James Holloway answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      This is called ‘the fine tuning problem’, the constants seem to be exactly right to lead to a universe that we can live in. If they were a little different then matter wouldn’t have formed, no stars, no galaxies, no life. One (not very satisfying) explanation is the anthropic principle:

      “only in a universe capable of eventually supporting life will there be living beings capable of observing any such fine tuning, while a universe less compatible with life will go unbeheld.”

      So if they wasn’t what they are, we couldn’t possible be here talking about them!

    • Photo: Simon Park

      Simon Park answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      Martin Rees, the astronomer royal, wrote a brilliant book on this called “Just Six Numbers”

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