Why is a Planck’s length the smallest possible distance?

Question

I know it’s only theoretical, but why couldn’t something be just slightly smaller?

In: 658

Answer 1

The Planck length is an *emergent* property of the laws of physics as we know them today. In other words, there are several pieces of experimental evidence that demonstrate the discretization of energy levels. They don’t “prove” that the Planck length is the smallest distance. Rather, the theoretical physics we have which aligns with those experiments points to this being true, regardless.