- 2895 - PHYSICS - mysteries we have yet to solve? We are all students if we are still learning, Right? Well mysteries in science today are solutions for students in the future. The science I refer to in this review is the broad look at astronomy and physics. Astronomy as the science of the very big. Physics as the science of the very small.
--------------------- 2895 - PHYSICS - mysteries we have yet to solve?
- Astronomy uses the theory of Relativity, which is basically the theory of “gravity“. Physics uses the theory of Quantum Mechanics, which is basically of particle physics and ‘uncertainty”.
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- In the world of “big things” space and time, matter and energy appear to be “continuous” properties. But, they are not. Because if we look at them closely enough they enter the world of “small things” which are all quantisized, that is they come in discrete packages, or quantums, that are not continuous.
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- Space can be quantisized to packets that are 10^-35 meters in size.
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- Time can be quantisized to packets of 10^-43 seconds duration.
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- These mysteries go from the very small to the very large, the universe at both ends.
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- When you use today’s math on the quantisized packages you enter the world of “uncertainties” These small things can only be described in terms of “probabilities“. It is only when we add them up into big things with many uncertainties cancelling out that we have what appears in our big world to be continuous and certainties.
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- So, the mystery is how to describe matter and energy as quantum equations using these probabilities. We can do Quantum math for space, length, and distances. We can do Quantum math for time and therefore velocity and acceleration. We have Quantum math for light, or photons.
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- But, we do not have math for Quantum gravity, matter and energy.
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- Relativity produces math for gravity if it is viewed as the warping of space and time. Quantum Mechanics needs gravity to be an exchange of particles, called gravitons, similar to photons. We just do not have a way to merge the theory’s contradictions between Relativity and Quantum gravity.
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- There is the mystery of the composition of the Universe that appears to be 95% Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We call it “dark” because we can not see it and so far do not know what it is. That leaves only 5% of the Universe that is everything we can see and can make science out of it. The fundamental particles that make up this 5% of ordinary matter and energy are only 18 in number. Particles like quarks, electrons, photons, gluons, bosons, etc.
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- The mystery is why “uncertainty” appears to be a fundamental physical law. When we enter the world of small things we can not determine the momentum (mass and velocity) and position at the same time. The more certain we are about one property the less certain we are about the other.
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- This is not just a measurement problem it is a physical law that causes all the equations to be expressed in terms of probabilities. A poor analogy but one I will use is that if we measure accurately the velocity of a race car we can not know its position accurately. If we measure its position accurately we can not know its velocity accurately. The same uncertainty trade-off exists between measuring time and energy.
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- There is the mystery of “entanglement”. When two particles are entangled it means that some property in one particle is tied to and instantly transmitted between the same property in another particle. When the spin of one entangled particle is flipped, the spin of the other particle also flips, regardless of the distance between them.
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- Called “action at a distance” the other particle could be on the other side of the galaxy, but, when one flips the other flips instantly. Instantly is faster than the speed of light, thought to be impossible.
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- Of course, the Big Bang itself is a mystery. This mystery must somehow bring astronomy and physics back together. If we run the clock backwards in an expanding Universe we get all matter and energy compressed together in a single speck of pure energy. Somehow the energy transformed itself into an expansion of space and time that evolved into the Universe we see today. When we get close to the Big Bang the equations in physics do not work.
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- There is a mystery in the mathematics of String Theory that does start to explain some of these mysteries but not all of them. String Theory is not one theory but 5 theories that need to be consolidated into one theory.
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- Because Perturbation theory is used in the math each theory depends on the assumptions used and the properties you start with. The theories are Type I, IIA, IIB, HO, and HE. There is one more theory that is designed to encompass all 5 of these theories and it is called M-Theory.
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- To make String Theory work you need 36 particles, double the number of 18 fundamental particles we know today. Called “super symmetry” it requires a pairing of every particle with a higher mass, or higher energy particle. Our particle accelerators have not been able to discover any of these heavier particles to date.
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- The math for String Theory also requires 10 dimensions, plus time. Not just the 3 dimensions, plus time that we understand as spacetime. We can not detect these extra dimensions because the strings are so small. If we took a single hydrogen atom and expanded it up to the size of the Milky Way Galaxy the strings in these extra dimensions would still be smaller that the diameter of a human hair.
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- Think of these 7 extra dimensions as ‘degrees of freedom” Space is 3 degrees of freedom. Time is one degree of freedom. But, other properties of particles could be charge, spin, polarity, that could offer other degrees of freedom, thus are the other dimensions.
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- The math in String Theory works because it treats each particle as a vibrating string. The different vibrations and different configurations of the strings account for the different properties of the 36 particles in super symmetry.
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- The Uncertainty Principle and the Wave-Particle Duality of all matter is another mystery. Wave-particle duality and the 2 slit experiment. Put a single slit in a paper and shin a light through it on to a screen. The image is a single white line. Put two slits in the paper and the image is no longer 2 white lines. It is a pattern of white lines and dark lines representing an interference pattern of a wave. All solid matter appears solid to us but it is actually almost all empty space.
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- The math says that the smaller the measurement the higher the energy it takes to measure it.
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--------------------- w = h / p, where “w” is wavelength, where “h” is Planck’s Constant.
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--------------------- “h” = 6.625*10^-34 kilograms*meters^2 / second, where “p” is momentum, which is the product of mass and velocity.
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--------------------- Therefore wavelength = 6.6*10^-34 / mass * velocity.
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---------------------- Wavelength is inversely proportional to mass. The smaller the mass the greater the wavelength.
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- E = h*c / w, where “E” = energy and “c” = the speed of light, c = 3*10^8 meters / second. Therefore wavelength = 2*10^-25 kilogram * meters^3 / seconds^2 / Energy.
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- Wavelength is also inversely proportional to Energy. The greater the mass the smaller the wavelength and the greater the energy needed to measure it.
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- That is the reason the Large Hadron Collider, the particle accelerator operating in CERN, Switzerland, is so massive and uses so much energy. All matter has waves and the smaller the mass the bigger the wavelength.
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- A baseball has a wavelength of less than the width of a proton. So, the batter can not see the uncertainty probabilities associated with the wave when he hit’s the ball. However, an electron has a wave for its mass that is equal to its size. Therefore an electron’s position is always one of probabilities as to where it is at any point of time.
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- How are our brains working at the quantum level of probabilities and uncertainties is the mystery of consciousness. We are because we think, but, how do we really think?
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- The Universe is composed of 20 natural constants that are always the same everywhere in the Universe. We have no way of deriving these constants except by experiments and measurements. None have ever been derived mathematically.
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---------------------- The Gravitational Constant is 6.674215*10^-15 meters^2 / (kilogram * seconds^2).
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---------------------- The speed of light is a Constant 2.998*10^8 meters / second.
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---------------------- The mass of an electron is always and everywhere the same, 9.108*10^-31 kilograms.
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- The same with the other natural constants. The mystery is greater because there values are what they are for whatever reason.
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- But, if any one of them were changed by the slightest amount the Universe would not exist as we know it and carbon-based life as we know it would not exist either. We would not be here thinking about it if any of these constants were any different. This mystery is called the Anthropic Principle.
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- We are here because they are what they are, Thank God!
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------------------- Other reviews that you might be interest in. Available upon request:
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- 938 Universal Constants. What are the natural constants and how do they shape our Universe.
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- 2882 - Physics the Way I Learned It.
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- 2386 - The Science of Physics. How all of physics can be narrowed down to two simple topics.
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- 2004 - The Trouble with Physics. How string theory and academics have lead physics astray.
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- 531 - Joseph Henry, an American teacher.
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- 532 - Robert Millican, a Physics teacher.
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- 524 - Physics keeps getting simpler. If you ask a stupid question you feel stupid. If you don’t ask a stupid question you remain stupid.
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- 2220 - The laws of motion.
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- November 8, 2020 1183 2894
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--------------------- --- Sunday, November 8, 2020 ---------------------------
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