Dictionary

Planck energy

Natural unit of energy that can be obtained by combining the fundamental natural constants that govern spacetime, the strength of gravity and the quantum world: the gravitational constant, Planck’s constant and the speed of light. Whenever elementary particles reach this kind of energy, in addition to the effects of quantum theory, the effects of general relativity should become important, in short: such situations could only be described adequately using a theory of quantum gravity.

Compare: Planck length, Planck time, Planck mass.