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- 2050 - The Quest for Reality. Albert Einstein came along and changed our reality by claiming that Newton’s laws were not accurate at high velocities. There is no reality in the absence of observation, and, there is no physical means by which one can observe absolute motion through space. - Our reality changed again when Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg came up with the quantum, describing how energy comes to us in discrete packages. All particles may become waves at their smallest dimensions. At the quantum level waves are oscillations of “possibilities“.
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------------------------ 2050 - The Quest for Reality
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- The quest is the search for what is truth not merely what is apparent, or observed. Everyone thought they had discovered reality when Isaac Newton was able to explain all observed motion on Earth and in the Solar System with only 3 simple mathematical laws.
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- Then Albert Einstein came along and changed our reality by claiming that Newton’s laws were not accurate at high velocities. In Einstein’s reality the measurement of space and time are dependent on the observer’s velocity. Space and time have to be adjusted so that the velocity of light remains the same for all observers.
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- There is no reality in the absence of observation, and, there is no physical means by which one can observe absolute motion through space. Motion must be measured against something else. It is always “relative” to another object.
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- Our reality changed again when Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg came up with the quantum, describing how energy comes to us in discrete packages, it is not really continuous like it appears. These energy packages are both waves and particles at the same time. And, the waves exist only as statistical probabilities. They can not be measured without disturbing them. If you measure the velocity you do not know its position. If you measure its position you do not know its velocity. The same is true with time and energy. You can only measure one in a trade-off of knowing the other.
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- Measurements are really an interaction between the attributes of the measurer and the measured. They do not belong to either. Only when we can show that the measurer is many times more accurate than the measured can we say that the measured attribute is accurate within reasonable limits.
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- To illustrate, if we use a thermometer to measure body temperature, the thermometer is cold and heats up by the amount of heat it absorbs until the two are equal. But the body has cooled down by the amount absorbed by the thermometer. Only if this interaction is small enough can it be ignored for practical purposes. It would not make sense to use a big, cold thermometer to measure temperature of a small body.
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- We can not know a quantum entity for what it is because we must inevitably disturb whatever we observe in trying to measure it. Electromagnetic energy is the transmitter of information, so by getting the information we changed what we were measuring. At the quantum level, light is too big a thermometer.
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- Even a light beam carries momentum and energy. Light comes in bundles, called photons, and the energy of each bundle is equal to Planck’s Constant * the Frequency of the Wave. Light is both a particle and a wave. It is a particle because you can count the number of photons. It is a wave because it can go around corners and it can form an interference pattern. Frequency is another name for color. So, a light’s energy depends on its color and not its intensity. Blue light has more energy than red light.
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--------------------- E = h*f = Energy equals Planck’s Constant * Frequency
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- Momentum = h / Wavelength = Momentum equals Planck’s Constant / Wavelength.
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- Momentum = h * f / c = Momentum equals Planck’s Constant * Frequency / Speed of Light.
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- Using a light wave to measure the position of an electron will change its velocity. And if we use a light wave to measure its velocity we will change its position. Momentum is mass * velocity. The change in momentum * the change in position must always be greater than Planck’s Constant, h.
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--------------- Delta Momentum * Delta Position > “h” > 6.626 *-34 kg*m^2/sec
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- Planck’s Constant is an “Action” about equivalent to the blink of an eye, a very small number. It is a Constant of Action. Action is Force * Distance. Force = Mass * Acceleration. Acceleration is the rate of change of Velocity. Velocity is the rate of change of Distance with Time.
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------------- Planck’s Constant = h = 10^-27 erg*seconds =
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------------- Planck’s Constant = 6.625*10^-34 joule*seconds =
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--------------Planck’s Constant =6.625*10^-34 kg *meters^2/second =
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-------------Planck’s Constant =4.136*10^-15 electron-volts*seconds.
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- It all boils down to “h” being a Constant that relates Energy, Space, and Time.
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- All particles may become waves at their smallest dimensions. At the quantum level waves are oscillations of “possibilities“. A wave vibrates in both time and space. If we freeze time we can measure a wave’s spatial picture. If we freeze space we can measure a wave’s temporal picture.
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- We can also measure a wave’s intensity by measuring its amplitude. The intensity of a wave is its amplitude squared. And, amplitude squared is a measure of “probability“. Probability = (amplitude)^2 = (possibilities)^2. When equal waves meet the amplitudes add. The wave interference can vary from zero (total cancellation) to twice the amplitude, and twice the possibilities.
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- We are used to waves in gases and liquids which support back and forth vibrations. Solids support back and forth as well as sideways vibrations. (Earthquakes vibrate in all three directions). Light, and all electromagnetic waves, vibrate only sideways.
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- The amplitude of a wave is its possibilities. The square of its possibilities is its probability. And, Probability is the relative number of ways a particular event can happen. That is the essence of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle that occurs at the quantum level. This was a reality that Einstein could not accept, he said, “ God does not play dice.”
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- An atom is 1000 times smaller then the wavelength of green light, 0.6 nanometers versus 600 nanometers. The nucleus of an atom is 10,000 time smaller than the atom, .00006 nanometers versus .6 nanometers. If electrons have any size at all it is smaller than our ability to measure it. We know it is smaller than 10^-18 meters, .000000001 nanometers.
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- The diameter of an electron, and the other elementary particles, may be zero. All particles may become quantum waves at their smallest dimensions. Light travels one nanofoot per second, 10^-9 feet/second, which is the length of 1,000,000,000 atoms.
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- Light is photons and photons carry the electromagnetic force. When we observe electric charges interact or magnets interact we see action at a distance that appears instantaneous. However, in reality these actions are occurring at light speed. The electromagnetic forces are caused by photons which always travel at light speed. The force of gravity is caused by gravitons and they too travel at light speed.
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- In reality Gravity Waves are ripples in the curvature of space-time. When huge masses accelerate (example: Black Holes) Gravity Waves are generated. When a Gravity Wave passes through a mass it squeezes it in one direction and stretches it in the orthogonal direction. Everything we see is pulsing in and out due to gravity waves. However, our world is primarily made of electromagnetic waves carried by photons which are 10^36 times stronger, 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger than gravitons. Gravity is so weak by comparison the deformation due to passing Gravity Waves goes undetected.
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- The electric and magnetic forces, like gravity, are the same everywhere and are always equal to a natural constant times the value of the charges times the inverse of the square of the distance between them.
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- The natural constant is the Fine Structure Constant and it is equal to the velocity of the electron in its circular path around the nucleus divided by the speed of light. The Fine Structure Constant represents the strength of the electromagnetic force that holds atoms together. It is a unitless number:
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---------------- Fine Structure Constant = 0.007197352568 = 1 / 137.03599976
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- The Fine Structure Constant, known as 1/137, sets the energy levels for the electrons that orbit the nucleus of every atom. An atom will absorb or emit an electron according to the interaction between orbital angular momentum and spin angular momentum.
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- A moving electric charge creates a magnetic field and emits photons of electromagnetic energy. The Fine Structure Constant is the constant that links the Speed of Light, Planck’s Constant of Action, and Electric Charge, c, h, and e.
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-------------- Fine Structure Constant = e^2 / h * c
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-------------- Fine Structure Constant = e^2 / 2*pi*h
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-------------- where c = 2*pi, one wavelength of an electron in a circular path around the nucleus at the speed of light.
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- Planck’s Constant, h, is a unit of “ action” and represents the smallest change that can be observed in nature. It is one wavelength of energy.
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---------------Planck’s Constant = Energy / Frequency
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---------------Planck’s Constant = Energy / Wavelength / Speed of Light
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--------------- h = E * w / c
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- (3) Number of electrons in the Observable Universe = the number of protons = c * time / Gravitational Constant * mass of a proton / c^2 = 10^80
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- (4) The size of the Observable Universe = c * time = c * 13.7*10^9 years = 1.3 *10^26 meters. That is the radius. The volume is 4.3 * pi radius^3 = 10^80.
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If you spread the protons out in the Observable Universe then there is only one atom / cubic meter. The best vacuum we can produce on Earth is 1,000,000,000,000 atoms in a cubic meter.
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- With so little matter in the Universe in order to accumulate an Earth sized mass it would be one in every 10 cubic lightyears of space (The nearest star is 4 lightyears away). In order to accumulate a star, it would be one in 1,000 cubic lightyears of a space. In order to accumulate a galaxy we need 10,000,000 lightyears of space.
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- In order to accumulate another Universe we would have one in every 10,000,000,000 light years of space. And, the Universe is only 13,700,000,000 years old with a diameter of 27.4 billion lightyears. There is room for two Universes, where is the other one? We only have enough matter for the one we have.
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Life requires the higher level elements, heavier than hydrogen and helium. Higher level elements, like carbon and iron, come from exploding stars, supernova. So, life had to come after the hydrogen burning lifetime of a main sequence star. This time scale is controlled by the fundamental constants of nature:
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----------------- Life of a star = ( h/Mp*c^2) / (G*Mp^2/h*c) = 10^40 * 10^-23/ 10^-40 = 2.14 * 10^17 seconds = 7 billion years.
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- So in order for life to exist it must be at least 7 billion years old and with 2 generations of star explosions 14 billion years, therefore, for life to happen it takes about 14 billion years. We could not live in a smaller Universe. The night sky is dark because the Universe must be old, cold, and dark in order for us to be here to observe it.
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- It is a strange world this reality and we will be lucky if we get out of it alive. While we are here we can think about these things, questing as it were, with a brain of only 10^27 atoms in size. However, the complexity of the brain allowed by all the possible ways we can wire up these neurons is 10^70,000,000,000,000, that is 1 followed by 70 trillion zeros.
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- I will bet you did not know your brain was that big and that it could be wired up that many ways. Food for thought.
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- (1) Number of photons = c^3 * time / G* Mp = (26.9*10^24 m^3/sec^3 * 4.32*10^17 sec) / (6.67*10^-11 m^3/kg*sec^2 * 1.167 * 10^-27 kg) = 1.49 * 10^80
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----------- There are roughly 1.5 * 10^80 photons in the universe.
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- (2) Radius = 3*10^8 m/sec * 3.16 * 10*17 sec = 1.3 * 10^26 meters. Volume = 4/3 * pi * 2.19 * 10^78 = 9.2 * 10^78 = 10^79
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-------------- The radius of the universe is roughly 10^79 meters
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- (3) Life of a star = ( h/Mp*c^2) / (G*Mp^2/h*c) = (6.625*10^-34 kg*m^2/sec / 1.167 *10^-23 kg /9*10^16 m^2 = .63*10^-23 sec) * (6.625 *10^-34 kg * m^2/sec * 3*10^8 m/sec / 6.67*10^-11 m^3/kg*sec^2 * (1.167*10^-17 kg) = .63*10^-23 *3.4*10^40 * = 2.14 * 10^17 seconds /3.16 * 10^7sec/year = 6.8 * 10^9 years = 7 billion years.
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----------------- The life of a star is roughly 7 billion years, on average.
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- (4) A rainbow is a virtual image. Every persons sees a different rainbow.
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------------------------- Friday, April 6, 2018 --------------------------------
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