**Ask a monkey a physics question thread**

[a500lbgorilla]

The mathematical notion of a singularity or "pole" is well understood.

If we're talking black holes, then Einstein's field equations predict a singularity in spacetime. Bu... bu... but... that mass is there 'cause particles, right? And them's particles have an astoundingly well defined location, right? So how can they have well-defined momentum and just sit there... being a singularity, then?

huh
?

GR and QM just don't overlap well, and the only thing to say is ... dunno.

We don't need to go to black holes to find a singularity, though.

Electrons have charge, obv. Electrons have no discernible size. At best, though astoundingly thorough predictions and measurements, we can say that if the electron has a non-0 radius, it can not be more than 10^-18 m. So for all that we have measured, there is a singularity in the electric field at the location of the electron.

Bu... bu... but... Where is that electron? QM... you make me cry sometimes.

We haven't proven ourselves clever enough to actually measure the E-field that precisely. The universe has decided that electrons will not sit still for photos, and so it must be.

Yeah, I'm a fan of non-human ideas. Like measuring things in terms of other things.

How much of what you just said misses that mark?