>>
archives

Weird Physics

This category contains 22 posts

New Abstract, July 2018

After stepping away awhile, even I found my old abstract unreadable. Here is a much clearer version of what my book is about. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Abstract, July 2018 Two insights from quantum statistical thermodynamics allow new interpretations of observations in Astronomy: Firstly, that entropy demands that the electrons’ wave functions in monatomic hydrogen will populate … Continue reading

Abstract – A New Paradigm in Physics

A modern quantum physics perspective is applied to the interpretations given to foundation experiments from the early 1900’s; in many cases they fall short. An alternative set of self-consistent explanations that better fits our modern understanding of wave mechanics is presented Light, being an electromagnetic wave, interacts with (in fact is carried by) every atomic … Continue reading

The Big Wobble

For this to make sense, you need to see something best demonstrated with a racket-like object — pingpong paddle or such.  However, a paperback book with the pages rubber-banded shut will work.  Spin it like a record on a turn-table and it does what you expect.  Spin it around the handle (or the long axis … Continue reading

Historic Appendix – Timeline of Interest

The latest installment for my book…. Historic Appendix This list of scientific advances since 1800 is meant to give more insight into how recently in human history we developed the foundations for understanding quantum mechanics. A few historic references are thrown in for perspective. For more detail, I heartily recommend Dr. Asimov’s “Chronology of Science … Continue reading

Section 14 – Cold Fusion and Prometheus

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

Section 13 – Mass, Gravity, and FTL Effects

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

Section 12 – Proton-proton interactions, or so it seems

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

Section 11 – New World View Summary – And another problem uncovered

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

Section 10 – Sharing Electrons – How Protons and Neutrons Interact

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

Section 9 – Proton Wave Functions – Electrons as a Side Effect

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

Section 8 – Hydrogen as an Excited State of a Neutron

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

Section 7 – Overlapping Wave Functions – Mass and its Basis Set

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

Section 6 – How Light Moves – Coupled Oscillators

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

Section 5 – Red Shift-iness – Expanding Universe?

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

Section 4 – The Nature of Light – Looking for an Ether Wind?

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

Section 3 – How Big Is an Atom? – Wave-Particle Duality

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

Section 1 – Relative to What – Faster than Light?

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

Section 2 – Problems with Gravity – Unified Field Theory

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

Environmental Crisis

Scientists and the media have been batting around all kinds of doomsday scenarios from global warming to asteroid strikes.  Let me throw out another one that I haven’t heard people focus on.  I first threw this idea out in my book “People of the Red Tide”, a middle-shool work of fiction about an environmentally concerned whale, … Continue reading

Coping with Toilet Paper

As a child I was told to take 3 squares of TP and fold them over parallel, so that they overlapped perfectly.  This would be the right amount to get the job done, without breaking, and not waste excess.  In the golden age of consumption, that worked well. Fast forward 50 years.  Now, while I … Continue reading

Cleaning Clues

This piece of literature was worked up for our Green Technology cleaning and floor care product line. ——– Cleaning Clues Here we talk about everything from soap bubbles to brighter whites.  Just a start to get you thinking about what the different cleaners do. Soap and pH The earliest soaps were made by breaking up … Continue reading

About Weird Physics

Why am I setting up this category?  This is the pigeon hole for stuff I find to be cool, but have no idea how it can ever make a positive difference in anybody’s life.  Maybe you can find a way…. But I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about certain stuff I learned and/or figured … Continue reading