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Pons and Fleischmann brought us the concept of cold fusion, wherein two deuterium atoms (each having one proton and one neutron in the nucleus) trapped inside a special metal crystal lattice might be squeezed at a pinch-point and encouraged to merge into a helium atom (having two protons and two neutrons). This would be a cheap and safe … Continue reading
So we’ve explored the idea that a neutron is an energetic oscillator that is potentially coupled to the other nucleotides around it, if just one of them is excited into becoming a hydrogen atom, sharing the excitation energy that is the electronic wave function. It is strongly coupled to those close enough to be in the … Continue reading
So, why should there be a proton-proton repulsion, mechanically speaking? Both particles are considered to have wave functions that chop off at nuclear distances, so at long distance, their wave functions don’t interact. By what spooky “force at a distance” (historic paraphrase) could an electrostatic repulsion occur between them? The key here is to look again … Continue reading
So, let’s summarize the concepts explored in this work so far, from the bottom up. I will italicize the parts that conventional physicists may have a problem with. 1. Neutrons are the smallest stable particle (on a chemist’s scale). They have a magnetic moment, so have spinning charges, but the symmetry of the wave functions is such … Continue reading
Okay, so what happens when you put identical harmonic oscillators next to each other? If you’ve followed through the chapters, you know. They share the excitation energy, resulting in lower Gibbs free energy, more stability, and a release of energy into the random universe, allowing entropy to increase. So if a hydrogen atom (aka proton-electron … Continue reading
In the previous chapter we touched on the idea that mass is a vibration along the positive-negative charge dimension. It is fun to speculate on just what the collapsed wave function of a neutron would look like that appears to have no outside charge, yet has angular momentum and mass. I admit that the details are … Continue reading
This chapter title says it all. I want you to think of a proton-electron pair (aka hydrogen atom) as the excited state of a neutron. Both sub-atomic reactions are possible and observed, p+ plus e- => n, and n => p+ plus e-. Both reactions have book-keeping problems with angular momentum, so have virtual particles called neutrinos absorbed … Continue reading
Now that we’ve disposed of the ether question for light waves, we have to face the same question as regards the waves that make up matter. To do that right you’re going to have to dig deeper into modern physics than I’m comfortable with, and maybe the answers involve quarks and maybe they don’t. I’m … Continue reading
The historic debate about whether there is such a thing as the “ether” cuts at the question of whether there is a medium through which light travels. The assumption there is that light, an electromagnetic wave phenomenon, exists independently of the stuff that is being polarized. This was discussed in the earlier chapter touching on the … Continue reading
Hubble was an astronomer, honored by having the massive orbital telescope named after him. He is most famous for discovering the “Hubble Red-Shift”. He established the distance to other galaxies by looking at known start types and using observed intensity to calculate how far away they must be. The interesting thing is that he notice that the spectrum … Continue reading
One of the great controversies in history, back when we were still grappling with relativity, was the question “if light is a wave, what is the medium?” Whatever this medium was, it was given the name the “ether”. People tried to figure out what the ether was, and thought it would be the canvas on … Continue reading
Which came first, the Auto or the Atom? This sensationalist heading from a grad-school poster I put together made a point that the legitimate debate about whether atoms really existed is very young in our culture. The original idea that there might be a point where you can’t divide matter any further came from the … Continue reading
Einstein published five landmark papers in a single year, 1905, now called his “Miracle Year” (see book of that title). This swiss patent clerk burst onto the stage in a discontinuous way that later caused conspiracy theorists to speculate that he was fronting someone else’s work, specifically a woman scientist that could get no “street … Continue reading
The “Greats” of Quantum Mechanics struggled to find a “Universal” Field Theory. This means one set of equations that explains both electrical fields and gravity at the same time. They seem to be totally independent of each other, which flies in the face of the elegance of most physical phenomena. Everything else fits together so … Continue reading
The Missing Octave Insights 