Beyond Mechanical Paradigms
hermital
From Old to New Physics, Part 1
Based on their new kinematics developed to describe the
dynamic motion of the accelerated particulate matter carriers
of electric charge that generate electromagnetic fields, and
unaware in 1905 of the massless electromagnetic spectrum that
was yet to be discovered, the collaborative team of Albert
Einstein and his learned first wife, Mileva Marić (pronounced
Marich) – who was his classmate and independent study partner
at the ETH in Zürich – excluded from their special theory of
relativity the luminiferous ether postulated by Christiaan
Huygens, Thomas Young, James Clerk Maxwell, and Hendrick A.
Lorentz.
The excluded luminiferous aether, however, had served as the
carrier of Maxwell's electromagnetic radiation. Furthermore,
massless nonmaterial electromagnetic radiation is comprised of
the uninterrupted movement – regardless of distance – from
point A to point B of the uncountable number of discrete
massless photons (nonmaterial primordial energy quanta) that
constitute the comprehensive electromagnetic spectrum at any
given instant of time. The innumerable photons, in turn, were
thought to be emitted and absorbed by the particulate matter
carriers of electric charge.
One consequence of an absent material or nonmaterial carrier
of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the 1905 special theory
of relativity (SRT) is the inescapable irony that the
ubiquitous electric and magnetic fields generated by the
accelerated particulate matter carriers of electric charge
were soon treated in classical mechanical or geometric physics
and, later, in early classical quantum mechanics as the de
facto carrier of massless nonmaterial electromagnetic radiation.
The demise of mechanical process in electromagnetic theory
began with the first 1905 Einstein-Marić paper, On a Heuristic
Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of
Light, which describes the photoelectric effect and contains
the original theoretical description of the quantum nature of
monochromatic light. Their revolutionary hypothesis is the
historical source of the pre-1920s old quantum physics.
The extension of Max Planck's mechanical energy quanta concept
through its application by means of the Einstein-Marić
photoelectric effect to visible light also revived the 17th
century wave-particle controversy between the proponents of
Christiaan Huygens' wave theory and Isaac Newton's corpuscles
(material particles) of light.
The photoelectric effect:
James Clerk Maxwell, following the British custom of the time
while intent upon adhering to mechanical Newtonian physics
despite theoretical concepts and experimental findings by
Michael Faraday to the contrary, chose to emphasize the
similarities of Newtonian mechanics and the new physics of
electric and magnetic energy by formulating a dynamical
electromagnetic field theory that included fanciful mechanical
analogies.
A half-century later the Einstein-Marić team pointed directly
to a crucial distinction between classical Newtonian physics
and Maxwell's dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field
(nonmaterial radiative electromagnetic energy) in the first
paragraph of their 9 June 1905 photoelectric effect paper:
"According to Maxwell's theory, energy is to be
considered as a continuous spatial function for all purely
electromagnetic phenomena, hence also for light, while
according to the current conceptions of physicists the energy
of a ponderable body is to be described as a sum extending
over the atoms and electrons. The energy of a ponderable body
cannot be broken up into arbitrarily many, arbitrarily small
parts, while according to Maxwell's theory (or, more
generally, according to any wave theory) the energy of a light
ray emitted from a point source of light spreads continuously
over a steadily increasing volume."
The crucial difference between kinetic and potential
mechanical energy and massless, weightless nonmechanical
electromagnetic radiation was accurately stated but poorly
understood at the beginning of the 20th century, not only by
the Einstein-Marić team but also by the physics community at
large which was deeply immersed in the investigation of
thermodynamics.
Incorporating Max Planck's intuitive discovery of the
thermodynamic blackbody quantum of nonmaterial electromagnetic
radiation energy in the description of their own revolutionary
work, the Einsteins' "ponderable body" quoted above is the
electron ejected by the photoelectric effect following the
application of quantized electromagnetic radiation in the
visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Thus the
energy of the ponderable body under consideration is
relativistic kinetic energy.
In other words, nonmaterial electromagnetic radiation and
relativistic (kinetic) mechanical energy are separate and
distinct phenomena.
Just four years after the 1905 photoelectric effect and
special relativity theory (SRT) papers were published Einstein
described the nonmechanical evolution of electromagnetic
theory in his 21 September 1909 lecture at the Salzburg
Conference:
"The more electromagnetic theory advanced, the more the
question of whether electromagnetic processes can be reduced
to mechanical ones retreated into the background; one became
used to considering the concepts of electric and magnetic
field strength, electric space density, etc., as elementary
concepts that are not in need of mechanistic interpretation."
The Universal Principle of Energy (TUPE):
Interestingly, a century after the publication of the
photoelectric effect, SRT, and the Salzburg lecture the
unexpected discovery of the universal principle of energy
(TUPE) in the zeroth year of the 21st century not only reveals
the existence of the omnipresent, pervasive, nonmaterial
primordial energy domain (NED). TUPE also reveals that
material mass is a discrete, organized aggregation (change of
state, phase transition) of fundamental, irreducible
nonmaterial primordial energy (NPE) that is created within the
NED.
Moreover, TUPE implies that relativistic invariant electric
charge is much more than simply a traditional property of
matter/mass and can now be seen as a natural, physically real
nonmaterial phenomenon that is created concurrently
(simultaneously) with material matter/mass in the NED. Indeed,
the fundamental point-like unit of nonmaterial primordial
energy (NPE) called electric charge seems to serve as the
indispensable link, the sine qua non between the material
domain of matter/mass and the NED.
Succinctly put, the novel first law of the universal principle
of energy (TUPE) states:
"Fundamental, irreducible primordial energy exists in
the absence of matter,
but matter is entirely dependent upon primordial
energy and cannot exist in the absence of energy."
Thus the universal principle of energy (TUPE) implies that:
1. Particulate matter/mass is created, contained, and
maintained as a discrete conditionally relative phase change
(change of state) of fundamental, irreducible nonmaterial
primordial energy (NPE) within the omnipresent, pervasive,
nonmaterial primordial energy domain (NED).
2. Electric charge is created, contained, and maintained
as a discrete conditionally relative phase change (change of
state) of fundamental, irreducible nonmaterial primordial
energy (NPE) within the omnipresent, pervasive, nonmaterial
primordial energy domain (NED).
3. The NED is the carrier of particulate matter/mass.
4. Particulate matter/mass is the carrier of NPE electric
charge.
5. Each electron, positron, and quark is the conjoint
coupling of discrete conditionally relative NPE matter/mass
and a discrete conditionally relative NPE electric charge
within the NED.
6. NPE electric charge is the sine qua non, the
indispensable link between the reciprocally emergent,
conditionally relative material domain of matter/mass and the
omnipresent fundamental, irreducible, nonmaterial primordial
energy domain (NED).
7. In principle our energetic holonomic universe is a
complex open (mechanically nonconservative)
nonmaterial/material system wholly embedded within the
fundamental, irreducible NED.
8. Complex open nonmaterial/material systems are
mechanically nonconservative systems in which matter/mass and
electric charge are not only created, but also destroyed as an
elementary, separate and distinct coupled pair.
9. The contemporary equivalence of relativistic mass and
the rest energy of classical physics is valid only in a
theoretically closed or isolated (mechanically conservative)
material system.
10. Global mass-energy equivalence is neither valid nor
sufficient in a complex open (mechanically nonconservative)
nonmaterial/material system embedded within the NED.
11. The paradoxical contradictions inherent in the
wave-particle duality concept of classical physics and
traditional quantum mechanics are completely resolved in the
omnipresent, pervasive NED by the identical nature
(irreducible sameness) of matter/mass and fundamental,
irreducible, nonmaterial primordial energy (NPE).
12. So-called empty space is simply the conspicuous
panoptic obverse of the massless omnipresent, pervasive NED.
More precisely, the universal principle of energy (TUPE)
points beyond classical physics, beyond conventional quantum
mechanics and the material domain to the omnipresent,
pervasive nonmaterial primordial energy (NPE) that constitutes
the fundamental, irreducible, nonmaterial primordial energy
domain (NED).
The discrete, conditionally relative NPE states (phase
changes) that comprise the nonmaterial/material holonomic
universe, including the unique conjoined, yet physically
separate and distinct localized states that humankind sees as
electric charge and matter/mass, are produced within the NED.
Three presently known families of particles can be seen to
exhibit the conjoint creation of electric charge and
matter/mass; namely, the lepton and quark fermion families,
and the W boson family.
The relativistic propagation of massless electromagnetic
radiation (photons) is also somewhat more complex than the
mechanical generation of nonmaterial electromagnetic fields by
changes in the positive (+) or negative (-) accelerations
(changes in velocity) of various electrically charged
particles, or the relativistic propagation of massless
nonmaterial EMR from point A to point B through so-called
empty space (i.e., the NED).
Furthermore, in the combined new physics of TUPE and the The
Energetic Holographic Paradigm (TEHP, pronounced "teep") model
of physical reality just-as-it-is, so-called empty space is a
nonmaterial optical illusion (visual misrepresentation)
created by the discontinuous pattern, the irregular presence
or absence of visible macroscopic particulate matter/mass
within the omnipresent, pervasive, nonmaterial primordial
energy domain (NED).
In other words, "empty space" has no separate physical
reality. Nonetheless, the absence of visible macroscopic
matter/mass and the presence of unseen microscopic NPE
matter/mass is sometimes exemplified by ad hoc concepts like
the luminiferous ether Maxwell included and SRT excluded, or
vacuum energy, quantum foam, or the Dirac sea, for example.
Contrary to philosophers and physicists from Aristotle to
Einstein, so-called unseen, intangible "empty" space that
contains no visible macroscopic matter/mass can be seen as
simply the conspicuous panoptic obverse of the fundamental,
irreducible, nonmaterial primordial energy domain (NED).
Electromagnetic radiation and the water wave analogy:
For nearly one hundred years the fundamental tone of
electromagnetic theory and practice was set by the third
paragraph of the Einstein-Marić 1905 photoelectric effect
paper which states:
"According to the assumption to be contemplated here,
when a light ray is spreading from a point, the energy is not
distributed continuously over ever-increasing spaces, but
consists of a finite number of energy quanta that are
localized in points in space, move without dividing, and can
be absorbed or generated only as a whole."
First, a bit of history.
According to the traditional water wave analogy of Huygens,
Young, and Maxwell, et al., there are certain similarities
between the propagation of visible light produced by a point
source and classical water waves created on the calm surface
of a pond or pool of water when a pebble or stone is lobbed
into it. Hence the transverse (lateral, orthogonal) electric
and magnetic fields of each massless monochromatic photon can
be seen as somewhat analogous to the mechanical rising and
falling waves on the surface of the water that move
transversely (radially) away from the point at which the
object entered the water.
Thomas Young (1773-1829), a polymath and medical doctor, was
appointed in 1801 as the first professor of natural philosophy
(physics) at the recently organized Royal Institution of Great
Britain in London, England. Young dramatically improved the
water wave analogy of Christiaan Huygens by simultaneously
dropping two pebbles of equal size into a calm pond of water
to demonstrate the phenomenon of wave interference.
Augustin-Jean Fresnel (pronounced fray-Nell) further improved
Huygens' principle in 1818.
Young demonstrated wave interference in his public lectures by
using a novel two-slit teaching device. He described the
demonstration in the published version of lecture Thirty-nine,
On the Nature of Light and Colours:
"Supposing the light of any given colour to consist
of undulations, of a given breadth, or of a given frequency,
it follows that these undulations must be liable to those
effects which we have already examined in the case of the
waves of water, and the pulses of sound. It has been shown
that two equal series of waves, proceeding from centres near
each other, may be seen to destroy each other's effects at
certain points, and at other points to redouble them; and the
beating of two sounds has been explained from a similar
interference. We are now to apply the same principles to the
alternate union and extinction of colours.
"In order that the effects of two portions of light
may be thus combined, it is necessary that they be derived
from the same origin, and that they arrive at the same point
by different paths, in directions not much deviating from each
other. This deviation may be produced in one or both of the
portions by diffraction, by reflection, by refraction, or by
any of these effects combined; but the simplest case appears
to be, when a beam of homogeneous light falls on a screen in
which there are two very small holes or slits, which may be
considered as centres of divergence, from whence the light is
diffracted in every direction. In this case, when the two
newly formed beams are received on a surface placed so as to
intercept them, their light is divided by dark stripes into
portions nearly equal, but becoming wider as the surface is
more remote from the apertures, so as to subtend very nearly
equal angles from the aperatures at all distances, and wider
also in the same proportion as the aperatures are closer to
each other. The middle of the two portions is always light,
and the bright stripes on each side are at such distances,
that the light, coming to them from one of the aperatures,
must have passed through a longer space than that which comes
from the other, by an interval which is equal to the breadth
of one, two, three, or more of the supposed undulations, while
the intervening dark spaces correspond to the difference of
half a supposed undulation, of one and a half, of two and a
half, or more."
(Note: A minor typo in the original text was corrected in
Paragraph 1 above.)
The analogy between water wave mechanics, massless
electromagnetic radiation, and photon propagation breaks down
at this point by focusing attention on the transverse waves
rather than the discrete object or photon that creates the
transverse waves. Clearly, compared to the motion of the
primary object, the rising and falling transverse waves
created in a water or nonmaterial primordial energy (NPE)
medium are a secondary effect.
In other words, by entering the water it is the pebble or
stone that creates the transverse waves on the plane surface
of the water medium. And, by sinking vertically straight to
the bottom, the material object is analogous to the discrete
energetic electromagnetic photon that generates the orthogonal
electric and magnetic transverse waves of monochromatic
electromagnetic radiation within the NPE medium as it travels
at the constant speed of light from emission point A to
absorption point B regardless of time or distance.
Contemporary double-slit experiments use a variety of methods
and objects of interest such as photons and electrons. In
contemporary quantum mechanics, for example, the results of
double-slit experiments like those of Akira Tonomura, et al.,
Hitachi Ltd, Japan, are currently understood as demonstrations
of wave-particle duality.
Especially notice that the combined new physics of TUPE and
TEHP imply that the medium between the source and the
recording device of a quantum double-slit experiment is
comprised not only of the ambient atmospheric molecules,
atoms, and electrons, the medium is also fundamentally,
irreducibly comprised of the omnipresent, pervasive
nonmaterial primordial energy (NPE) that constitutes the
indispensable NED which is commonly misidentified as empty space.
Beyond the classical and quantum mechanical paradigms:
The first law of the universal principle of primordial energy
(TUPE) states that fundamental, irreducible nonmaterial
primordial energy (NPE) exists in the absence of matter, but
matter is entirely dependent upon NPE and cannot exist in the
absence of NPE. The first law of nonmaterial primordial energy
(NPE), therefore, implies the identical nature of NPE and
material matter/mass within the fundamental, irreducible,
nonmaterial primordial energy domain (NED) of physical reality
just-as-it-is.
It follows that material matter/mass is fundamentally a
discrete, organized aggregation (change of state, phase
transition) of NPE generated within the fundamental,
irreducible nonmaterial primordial energy domain (NED).
Physical reality just-as-it-is necessarily is, therefore, a
complex open (mechanically nonconservative)
nonmaterial/material system as opposed to a closed or isolated
(mechanically conservative) material system.
Classical physics is fundamentally the history of classical
mechanics. Classical mechanics, in turn, was extended into the
microscopic realm by quantum mechanics. Nonetheless, while
classical physics and contemporary quantum mechanics are valid
in closed or isolated (mechanically conservative) material
systems, classical and quantum mechanics are separately and
collectively insufficient for describing the new physics of
the complex open (mechanically nonconservative) nonmaterial
primordial energy domain (NED) implied by TUPE.
Briefly summarizing the history of contemporary physics, Isaac
Newton's physics and Christiaan Huygens' light waves in the
late 17th century are mechanical. James Clerk Maxwell's
mid-19th century physics and electromagnetic waves are
mechanical. The unexpected, unrecognized harbinger of
nonmechanical, nonmaterial quantum physics was Max Planck's
intuitive discovery of the thermodynamic blackbody radiation
energy quantum of action which he presented to his colleagues
on 14 December 1900, the zeroth year of the 20th century.
The Einstein-Marić team submitted four technical papers and
Albert's Ph.D dissertation to Annalen der Physik for
publication in 1905:
1. On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production
and Transformation of Light, (received 18 March 1918).
2. A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions, Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Zürich, (received 11 May 1905).
3. On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, (received 30
June 1905).
4. On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in
Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of
Heat, (received 19 August 1905).
5. Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy
Content?, (received 27 September 1905).
The first four were published in Annalen der Physik, Volume
17. The fifth paper was published in Volume 18.
Louis de Broglie (pronounced "de Broy"), after serving in the
French army during World War I, postulated the wave nature of
electrons in his 1924 doctoral thesis. Erwin Schrödinger
published a series of four papers in 1926 in which the third
paper proved that his particle wave mechanics were precisely
equivalent to Werner Heisenberg's 1925 matrix mechanics. In
his fourth paper Schrödinger developed a particulate matter
wave mechanics equation that changes with time based on the
conservation of nonrelativistic mechanical energy. The results
of the relativistic Schrödinger equation developed later are
also limited to the material domain.
In 1927 Heisenberg developed the uncertainty principle that
describes the inherent inability of quantum mechanics to
simultaneously measure the precise position and momentum of a
material particle. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle was
later extended to include the inability of quantum mechanics
to simultaneously measure kinetic energy and time with precision.
Interestingly, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle delimits
only the material domain described by classical physics and
quantum mechanics.
The development of contemporary quantum physics continues to
be a work in progress, thus there are many interpretations of
quantum mechanics. Moreover, despite the constraints of the
mechanical paradigm and the matter argument, the advancement
in quantum theory and practice since the 1920s has trended in
the general direction of the NED, especially in the areas of
quantum chromodynamics, vacuum energy, dark energy, vacuum
polarization, virtual particles, and self-energy.
Please visit http://hermital.org/ to view the inline links and
footnotes essential to understanding the new concepts above.
Last Edit: May 21, 2010.
Copyright © 2004-2010 by Alan T. Williams. All rights reserved