““The strength of the familiar electromagnetic force between two electrons, for example, is expressed in physics in terms of a constant known as the fine structure constant. The value of this constant, almost exactly 1/137, has puzzled many generations of physicists. A joke made about the famous English physicist Paul Dirac (1902-1984), one of the founders of quantum mechanics, says that upon arrival to heaven he was allowed to ask God one question. His question was: "Why 1/137?””
![“If alpha [the fine-structure constant] were bigger than it really…” quote by Max Born](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f20/max-born-17349_able_if-alpha-the-fine-structure-constant-wer_1491109.jpg)
