United Public Domain Gold 2/United Public Domain Gold 2.iso/utilities/pu731.dms/pu731.adf/Myths.txt

Text File | 1995-03-09 | 15KB | 311 lines

>>>u_sci/physics 3763 [e-mail](14434)19Nov91 03:01
TITLE: Epicycles (spoiler) (long)

+From         : [e-mail] (Hoyt A. Stearns jr.)
+Organization : International Society of Unified Science
+Keywords     : Solar, Fusion, Atom, speed of light


        *********The Myths of Modern Physics********
                        by
                Prof. Frank H. Meyer (Ret)
        Dept of Chemistry-Physics, University of Wisconsin-Superior
                        and
        Ronald W. Satz, Transpower Corp. Parkerford, Pa. 215 495 6362
        President, International Society of Unified Science, Inc.

        from RECIPROCITY, the journal of the International Society of
        Unified Science, Inc. , Volume XI, no. 2
        1680 E. Atkin Ave.
        Salt Lake City, UT 84106 801-467 3795
        ISSN 0276-4172

Abstract:

Questions are raised as to four principles of modern physics:
solar fusion, the nuclear atom, light as a measure of maximum speed,
and gravitational collapse, through the argument that a single
contradiction between the theory and fact is enough to discredit any
fashionable theory, no matter how mathematical and popular.

Questions for physicists and physics teachers as to myths in
contemporary thought within our discipline may be raised, identified
and distinguished from physical truth by findings which the authors of
this report have drawn from both classical and modern writings,
particularly from the work of D.B.Larson.

Our concern focuses on four myths of contemporary physics:

MYTH of solar fusion                    MYTH of gravitational collapse
MYTH of "nothing faster than light"     MYTH of the nuclear atom

Myth-making is an old human custom and entertainment, Physicists have
not been immunized from it.

Some additional examples of modern myth-making are: the 4-dimensional
infinitely divisible space-time continuum; the quark; the neutron star;
and the black hole, etc.

Myths of modern physics, being of scientific rather than religious
foundation, are more subtle than popular myths of the past.

Hardly anyone in the U.S.A. or U.S.S.R. believes that the sun and moon
are a god and goddess.  Probably no academician alive believes, as once
Plato did, that the planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn,
are divinities.  The Viking gods, Woden and Thor, no longer are widely
believed to preside, respectively, over Wednesday and Thursday, not even
in Scandinavia.

Myths of modern physics are much more difficult to refute than the
myths of the past, because the modern myths are more finely invented
and intricately interwoven.  The modern scientific myths also are
backed by the articulate advocacy of many leading modern scientists--a
profession better organized than the priesthood of ancient Greece.

*Myth of solar fusion*

The myth of solar fusion is the unfounded theory that the sun's energy
derives primarily from the fusion of four hydrogen nuclei to a helium
nucleus with neutrino formation as a by-product.

One has only to look into almost any college astronomy textbook, be it
Frederick and Baker, 10th Edition(1976); George Abell, 3rd
Edition(1975); Pasachoff and Kutner(1978); or Michael Zelik,
Astronomy(1979) to realize that the nuclear fusion model of solar
energy generation has had its day.  This is because Ray Davis' neutrino
experiment has not confirmed the fusion model.  It is regrettable that
many competent physicists and astronomers accepted the Hans Bethe solar
fusion models as proved before the experimental results were in.  As
recently as 1965, no well-known physicist or astronomer doubted that
the sun was emitting copious amounts of neutrinos.  They agreed
uncritically and complacently that the Bethe models must be correct and
the Davis experiment must prove it to be so.  The nuclear
fusion myth can only be maintained by denying that it matters as all
whether the theory can be confirmed experimentally.

In 1959, D.B.Larson doubted the solar fusion concept and proposed an
alternative radioactive explanation of solar energy generation.  From
the postulates of his *Reciprocal System* of theory he has inferred
that the energy generation is achieved by the fission of the heavy
elements instead of fusion of the light elements in the sun.

The Larson fission theory of solar energy generation has the merit that
it does not require the sun to emit an abundance of neutrinos, as does
the fusion theory.  Fission, nevertheless, does account for the solar
energy as well as fusion can and should have been considered equally
with fusion as a principal cause of the sun's energy from the
beginning.  Though by not examining it, no one has either proved or
disproved it, this theory has a distinct advantage over the fusion
theory of also offering a credible physical explanation of
supernova explosions (Larson, 1971,1984).

*MYTH of the nuclear atom*

The solar fusion myth is a conspicuous by-product of the theory of
nuclear physics.  The mythical character of the by-product raises a
question: How free of myth is nuclear physics itself?

The principle reason why the nuclear atom model, apart from the
question of its truth, has remained firmly in command of physical and
chemical research is that it has seemed to work.

However, the nuclear atom model seems not to work for explaining how
the sun's energy is generated.  Thus, the nuclear atom is itself
brought into question, because it has failed to work for the important
case of solar energy generation.

Besides, analysis of atomic structure in the light of D.B.Larson's(1961)
*Reciprocal System* discloses that the nuclear atom model is, itself, a
myth.

No nucleus can be seen in any atom, simply because there is none to be
seen, not because the atom and nucleus are too small to be seen.

So-called elementary-particles, such as protons, neutrons and
electrons, are not included in actual atomic structure, because an atom
is really a unity of discrete motions rather than a system of distinct
substances.

The interesting finding of the Reciprocal System is that matter pre-
supposes light.  Matter is a form of motion, specifically a
superposition of discrete motions, rotational motions, upon the
vibrational and translational motions of one or two photons of light.

Shrader-Frechette (1977) in an extended review of the nuclear atom
concluded that there is no more evidence that an atom is composed of
elementary particles than that it is not.

*MYTH of nothing faster than light*

It is evidently true that no material object moves faster than 186,000
miles/second.  It is not true that material objects are the only
physical objects to be found in the physical universe.

The material sector is one-half of the physical universe, not the whole
of it.  Larson(1959,1979) refers to the other half as the cosmic
sector, because the principal evidence for its existence is found in
the existence of cosmic radiation [cosmic rays and background radiation].

The cosmic sector contains as many kinds of physical objects as does
the material sector.  A cosmic object can be identified and
distinguished from a material object by the fact that it can only exist
as such by having a finite rate of motion exceeding 186,000
miles/second.

Hence it is a myth that 186,000 miles/second is the maximum speed
allowable in the physical universe.

The absolute constancy and isotropy of the 186,000 miles/second speed
in empty space-time should have alerted physicists before now to the
fact that this cannot be the characteristic speed of a particle of
light.  Photons are peculiar immaterial physical objects in that they
have two speeds, two rates of motion-a translation rate and a vibration
rate, called frequency.  What distinguishes one photon from another is
frequency. A photon is a compound motion, which explains why it behaves
as particle and wave.  The speed which photons have in common is the
speed of the specific space-time location in which each photon
originates.  Larson calls this speed of light the unit speed of the
space-time progression at the uniform clock rate of one unit of space
per one time unit.  The postulated discreteness of the space-time
continuum is due to Larson's discovery(1959,1979) that neither space
nor time is infinitely divisible and that they are reciprocally related
as motion.

It is because space and time are the reciprocals of each other, that
for every physical entity or phenomenon, there is an inverse, which is
identical in all respects except that space and time are interchanged.
For instance, for every material chemical element in the Periodic
Table, its inverse exists in the form of a chemical element.  This
inverse is not an additive inverse (+-), which is a reason why Larson
prefers to use not the term "anti-matter (Alfven Hannes, 1966), to
characterize the cosmic elements and particles.  Material element
and/or its cosmic element opposite are related as multiplicative
inverses(*/).

Unit speed, (the speed of light), is neither a maximum nor minimum
speed.  Its true physical significance, according to the *Reciprocal
System* is twofold.  Unit speed is the uniform scalar rate of
progression of empty and photon-filled space-time locations.  As such
it is the natural, preferred inertial frame of reference, in which all
physical measurement is most appropriately and simply performed.  The
mathematical number unity rather than zero is the true physical zero.

*MYTH of gravitational collapse*

Gravitational collapse is a scientific notion much employed by
astro-physicists to explain a diversity of astronomical objects.
The notion first was invoked to explain the ultradensity of the white
dwarf stars.  More extravagant forms of gravitational collapse,
the neutron star and the black hole, are used to explain the
ultradensity of stars even more dense than the white dwarf--
the pulsar (Manchester, Taylor, 1977).

Gravitational collapse is a scientific myth because it is built upon
three propositions each now known to be contrary to fact.  These
questionable premises about gravitation and space-time are:

        Gravitational force is the only universal force.
        Space-time is an infinitely divisible continuum.
        Gravitation always behaves as an attractive force.

If gravitational force were the only universal force, the large-scale
structure of the physical universe would have a center at which the
spatial density of the stars and galaxies would be a maximum.
Proceeding outwards from the putative center, the spacial density
should continuously decrease until finally at great distances it should
be replaced by an infinite void.

In fact, the physical universe is not so constructed.  If the physical
universe has a center, it is everywhere and anytime, as Comenius(1658)
proposed.

In fact, the space-time continuum is interrupted by finitely divisible
units of space and time.  In fact, motion is a reciprocal relation
between space and time.  More space and less time mean faster motion.
Less space and more time mean slower motion.

As a consequence of the discrete and reciprocal character of space and
time, gravitational force manifests a repulsive side inside a natural
unit of space (s0 = 0.456 E-5 cm) as well as the familiar attractive
side outside the discrete space unit.  Gravitational motion is
naturally always a scalar motion always tending towards unity.

The space-time progression is naturally always a scalar motion tending
away from unity.  Outside a natural unit of space, the space time
progression moves things apart and is the cause of the expansion
(Hubble, 1936) and the openness (Pasachoff) of the physical universe.
However, inside a unit of space, away from unity results in bringing
physical objects closer to each other in space.  Consequently, in the
motion of solid cohesion the force of space-time progression plays the
role of the attractive force.

Hence even in the solid phase of matter gravitational collapse can  NOT
be made to occur: atoms in solids have not been made to touch each
other under maximum compression.  Solid matter is a stable equilibrium
product, a stable equilibrium between the attractive space-time
progression force and the repulsive gravitational force.

When gravitational collapse is not found in the solid phase, it is not
to be expected in the fluid phases of stellar and galactic matter.  In
short, gravitational collapse is a myth.  Hence a different explanation
must be sought for the ultradensity of certain astronomical compact
objects as white dwarfs, pulsars, quasars, etc.

See the article "The Density Gradient in White Dwarf Stars, by D.B.
Larson, RECIPROCITY Vol. XI, no. 2 ISSN:0276-4172.

For a remarkable analysis of how the sun *really* works including sunspots,
see "Glimpses into the Structure of the Sun", Prof. K.V.K. Nehru,
RECIPROCITY, Vol.XVII no. 2 and Vol. XVIII, no.1

        REFERENCES

Abell, George. Explorations of the Universe. Third edition,
                Holt,Rhinehart,and Winston. 1975

Alfven, Hannes. Worlds-Antiworlds. W.H.Freeman and Company. 1966.

Comenius, J.A. On learned Ignorance. 1658.

Frederick, L.W. and Baker, R.H. Astronomy, Tenth Edition. D. VanNostrand
                Company, 1976

Hubble, E,E.    Realm of the Nebula. Yale University Press. 1936.

Larson, D.B.    The structure of the Physical Universe. North Pacific
                Publishers. 1939

----            Nothing But Motion, North Pacific Publishers, 1979

----            Quasars and Pulsars. North Pacific Publishers, 1971.

----            The Case against the Nuclear Atom, North Pacific
                Publishers. 1961.

----            The Universe of Motion, North Pacific Publishers, 1984.

----            Basic Properties of Matter, International Society of
                Unified Science, Inc. 1988.  1680 E. Atkin Ave.
                Salt Lake City, UT 84106 801-467 3795

Satz, Ronald W. The Unmysterious Universe, Troy Printers, 1971.

Manchester, R.N. and Taylor, J.H. Pulsars. W.H. Freeman and Company.
                1977

----            Popular Open Universe. Science News. Vol 117, 1980

Shrader-Frechette, K. Philosophy of Science September, 1977.

Zelik, Michael. Astronomy. Second Edition. 1979.


--
Hoyt A. Stearns jr.| [e-mail] | International Society of Unified Science
4131 E. Cannon Dr. |               |          Advancing the
Phoenix, AZ. 85028 |     voice     | The Reciprocal System- a unified theory
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