Bricks

How many times can one break a brick in half, taking each half piece and subsequently breaking it in half as well?  This was the question posed by a certain physics professor to his class to stimulate critical thinking among his students.  While the immediate reaction seems to be to say “an infinite number of times” this is quite obviously not the case.  Eventually, one arrives at the atomic, and indeed subatomic, levels so that, at some point, we are longer even talking about breaking the ‘brick-proper’ in half, but its subatomic units into halves; that is, disintegrating the very protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up one individual atom within the brick.  Ultimately, one would arrive at the peculiar measurement nominally inscribed as ‘Planck length’ which is approximately 10^-35 m small,.  Theoretically, no improved type of measuring instrument could measure anything smaller than this length (which is analogically the size of a pin-head to the universe, if an actual pin-head is the size of the universe!).  Perhaps this was the “space between spaces” that the aliens from the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones’ series leapt into at the end of the film.  Nevertheless, bricks can be used to also consider the grandeur of immense largeness as well.  Take, for example, the Great Pyramid, which has enough bricks that make up its structure to build a 10-foot high wall around France.  Having their origin in such terrestrial elements, bricks themselves are nothing peculiar and profoundly valuable…after all, it was slaves of Egypt that made the bricks, with and without straw.  Alone, they are of little value, perhaps other than a door-stopper or earthen paperweight, and actually clutter the space they occupy, rather than bring it beauty or significance.  Yet, as a whole, they can create a profound structure indeed, even one fit for a king – dead or alive.  They may seem quite ordinary and rustic, especially alone; but together they can create an awe-inspiring structure.  Perhaps the ambient greatness of the king they ensconced emanated to the bricks themselves.