---
title: "Planck time · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/planck-time
description: "Planck time is about 5.4 × 10^-44 seconds."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Quantum mechanics

# Planck time

Definition

Planck time is about 5.4 × 10^-44 seconds. It’s the timescale where quantum gravity is expected to matter, and below it the idea of time may not apply.

On this site

The finest timestep a simulation could need. The sandbox stops at yoctoseconds, but the physics might not.

Role in the model

This is the finest timestep a simulation could need. The sandbox stops at yoctoseconds for the quark rung. A universe simulated at the Planck scale would need roughly another twenty orders of magnitude. Nothing on the machine ladder comes close.

Related

[Timestep](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/timestep)[Lloyd’s bound](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/lloyd-bound)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)