Even eminent physicists admit the there is something fundamentally wrong with the scientific discipline of physics, as with Lee Smolin in his book with the above title. He says a possible solution is ‘freezing time‘ - now what he means by this and how it could be achieved I have no idea.
Most academic physicists would assert that the basis of physics today are quantum and relativity theories, but these two are acknowledged to be incompatible. And, in 80 odd years of intense endeavour in attempting to combine these into a ‘theory of everything’ (with a certain Nobel as the prize), the most brilliant mathematical physicists have completely failed.
Buckminster Fuller wrote (in ‘Utopia or Oblivion’) that from the 1930’s physicists ‘were going to work entirely in the terms of abstract, “empty set”, mathematical expressions‘ and that ‘all physical conceptual models (were) suspect‘.
And today, as a consequence, all eminent physicists are better described as mathematicians, but this purely mathematical approach has failed to advance our knowledge of the ultimate structure of matter and its interactions at macroscopic level, the most important being the transmission of the force of gravitation, and an explanation of its cause.
In the formulation of Special Relativity (SRT) Einstein assumed that the atmosphere of the earth extended only to a certain altitude, and that beyond this space was a total vacuum.
“Half a century ago, (i.e. 1950’s) most people visualised our planet as a solitary sphere travelling in a cold, dark vacuum of space around the Sun.”1
Accordingly he firstly further assumed (out of sheer necessity) that light needed no medium for transmission, and secondly that, rather than it accelerating to infinity within this vacuum as some suggested, it would travel in it at a velocity as indicated by experiments using the moons of Jupiter as a yardstick, and in SRT accordingly used this as a basis for the suggestion that light speed is invariable throughout the universe.
As kinetic theory then stated that the gases at sea level were volumetrically 99.9% a vacuum, he also assumed that the velocity of light, in passing from the supposed vacuum of space, would not be inhibited by the meagre distribution of atomic matter within the earth’s atmosphere, and so the velocity here would also be c.
It is now known that a vacuum is ‘a philosophical concept with no basis in reality’2, and that in space throughout the universe there is a consistent distribution of matter at varying densities.
“Absolute vacua cannot be created or found. — for example interplanetary space is not a vacuum, but has density ρ = 10−29g.cm.−3 or 10−5 protons cm.−3. The Universe itself is not a vacuum but has various densities associated with itself -” 3
Thus it is now known that space is not a perfect vacuum, and the cosmic microwave background shows that there is a consistent distribution of matter throughout the vast regions of inter-galactic and inter-stellar spaces in the universe.
Since the early 1980’s images constructed from data obtained by the technology of electron microscopy have provided a visual confirmation of the ultimate, natural division of matter. But, while this is acceptable empirical proof of the existence of atoms and of their structural arrangements in solid matter, these images show no sign of the motion, or of the separation of atoms in macroscopic matter that is a core assumption of current atomic theory. Instead these images give a clear impression of an ‘apparent continuousness’ (1) of atoms.
The historical origins of this concept of the separation of atoms by a volume of ‘empty space’ go back to Greek philosophers of around 2500 years ago, who invented the vacuum in order to be able to explain the fluidity of air and water with their ‘billiard ball’ type atoms.
In 1644 Torricelli was generally assumed to have created a perfect vacuum in his experiments with mercury, which contradicted the then generally accepted Aristotelian wisdom that this state was not possible in any circumstance. It can be no coincidence therefore that three years later, in 1647, Gassendi resurrected Democritus’ ‘kinetic’ atomic theory, which was dependent on its existence.
When Torricelli’s apparatus was later shown by Pascal to be an indicator of atmospheric pressure, this “supported the belief that the atmosphere is only a thin layer surrounding the earth, and that outer space is empty” (2). This belief of space as essentially a vacuum perpetuated until the mid 1900’s - “Half a century ago, most people visualised our planet as a solitary sphere traveling in a cold, dark vacuum of space around the Sun.” (3)
Eddington’s 1919 Proof of Relativity is Invalid
0 Comments Published by romun October 21st, 2006 in Relativity.Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity, presented around the turn of the last century, were said to be confirmed in two main ways, firstly in providing an explanation, where the application of classical Newtonian mechanics could not, for the slight precessive aberration in the orbit of Mercury, and secondly, and more importantly, by the results of the observations of stars close to the suns surface during the eclipse of the sun in 1919 that confirmed that the observed position deviated fractionally (1-2 seconds of arc) from the true position.
It was the general belief of scientists at this time that the Michelson and Morley experiments on the velocity of light in the 1880’s were a confirmation of the, then long-held assumption of many scientists, that the atmospheric matter of the earth extended to a certain (undefined) altitude whereupon the pure vacuum of space began.
Continue reading ‘Eddington’s 1919 Proof of Relativity is Invalid’
It is accepted that gravitation acts upon all matter throughout the universe and it is observed to do so, yet at the atomic level inter-atomic and celestial gravitation ‘can be ignored’. Applying this to convection means that this thermal transport cannot be sensibly explained.
However if we accept that gravitation acts on all matter including atoms in accordance with Newtons Laws, which means rejecting the illogical, unproven and obstructive concept of a kinetic motion of atoms in ‘empty space’, then convection can be simply explained in these terms, and not only this phenomenon but all the others that I have considered in this light.
Thus gravitation is the ultimate force, and which is the ultimate cause of all other forces, one such is pressure that also is observed to act throughout the universe.
Physics: Einstein’s False Assumption
At the turn of the last century scientists generally believed that the atmosphere was a thin layer surrounding the earth, after which the vacuum of space began, and today the science of physics is locked into the consequences of this false assumption.
It was also widely believed then that this vacuum of space permeated down through the atomic matter of the atmosphere and into the liquid and solid matter at the surface of the earth - the theory of ‘discontinuous’ matter, also known as kinetic atomic theory.
Today it is known that: - “The space shuttle at 300 km altitudes ‘in space’ was found to be in air, with the same proportions of oxygen and nitrogen as at sea level, at a concentration of 1 billion atoms per cc. Thus in no sense could it be called a vacuum.”
“The sun too has an atmosphere – that extends far beyond the orbit of the earth, and at 80,000 km our atmosphere merges imperceptibly with that of the sun.” (Michael Allaby, ‘Air, The Nature of Atmosphere and Climate’)
Today it is accepted, by applied scientists and technicians, that it is not possible to create a perfect vacuum in the laboratory, and further it is now acknowledged that a perfect vacuum ‘is a philosophical concept with no physical reality’ and that ‘outer space is a natural high quality (i.e. partial) vacuum’.
Today there is also empirical evidence that the theory of discontinuity is invalid. This has been provided since the early 1980’s by the technology of electron microscopy. The images of individual atoms in close proximity at the surfaces of solid matter produced by this technique, which take a considerable amount of time to produce, show no sign whatever of the motion or of the separation predicted by the theory.
Current atomic theory has as its base the concept of the discontinuity of matter, or the existence of an empty space, void , or vacuum between the atoms of matter in any state. The origins of this idea go back to Greek philosophers of around 2500 years ago who intuitively suggested that matter was divisible only up to a certain, then unspecified, minuscule point.
While this was a logical idea for solid matter, in which solid, spherical atoms could be pictured in close proximity as in a pile of oranges, the problem was to explain the fluidity of liquids and of air (as the latter had been identified by Empedocles as having substance).
This was resolved by assuming that the atoms in these states of matter were moving in an eternal ‘kinetic’ motion surrounded by an empty space that was a perfect vacuum, which by definition could not itself exert any force or influence the motions or interactions of the atomic matter in any way.
This idea of the existence of an all-encompassing vacuum was soundly rejected by, amongst others, Aristotle, whose theories, such as the concept of just four material elements (earth, air, fire and water), predominated and which later became part of the accepted ’science’ by the Ecclesiastical Roman Empire which ruled Western Europe for a thousand years. The church allowed no deviation from these concepts and, often brutally, enforced acceptance of them, but with the dissipation of the churches power from the 16th century onwards and with technological advances, such as Galileo’s refinement of the telescope, natural philosophers began to openly explore the realities of the material environment.
