Much Ado About Nothing by Peter Jackson

Frank(Peter)

"Perfectly constant characteristics of a vacuum everywhere is just one of the assumptions that is required for Einstein's theories"

Was it? In SR he just invokes it as a condition, not what physically exists. In GR he makes no such assumption. The ether, which is in effect that vacuum, comprises particles which have an effect on others travelling through it, which includes light.

Peter is right in identifying, physically, how that which we call light, might travel, and indeed at a more or less constant rate, having always started at the same speed ("atomic shattering"), and how it can do this but remain unchanged (virtually).

Paul

Paul (Peter)

It seems that some people with good academic credentials do not consider that a "perfect vacuum" is just a condition of SR. Several years ago, I had an email exchange with an IEEE editor (with PhD in physics, since moved on), who had written a special article describing how the Pioneer 10/11 anomaly might be explained. I stated that a variable permittivity/permeability based on the inverse square of the distance from the Sun would explain the anomaly. The following is the editors response:

"Your suggestion of making the permittivity and/or permeability of the vacuum radially dependent on distance from the sun, and so altering the speed of light, would indeed produce results that look like the Pioneer Anomaly. However, this would undermine the basis of relativity theory, by eliminating the equivalence of inertial reference frames[1], and so also wipe out the standard model (in particular, having a variable vacuum speed of light would have a severe impact on the predictions of time dilation, which have been experimentally verified in particle accelerators, albeit only on Earth.)

It seems the simple solution or even a suggestion for a solution, aka Occam's Razor, can't be used if it conflicts with SR.

One of my other mentors at the time my IEEE editor email exchange took place was a Prof. Emeritus of Elec. Engr. I provided him with my email exchange with the IEEE editor and he responded, "Frank, you must understand that the special theory of relativity (SRT) is the holy grail. It's the place where religion and science become one. If one has the audacity to suggest other possibilities, he is forever shunned, banned, and is a candidate for being burned at the stake."

Some of the currently observed oddities about the "vacuum" were not known when Einstein developed and published his theories, thus, reinforcing my view that Einstein reached conclusions with "incomplete information" (thanks to the Georgina Parry essay on a way to examine assumptions).

Frank

By condition I mean a presumed theoretical caveat. Not what is in 'space'. Einstein was clear about this:

Einstein (1922) Ether and The Theory of Relativity:

"It may be added that the whole change in the conception of the ether which the special theory of relativity brought about, consisted in taking away from the ether its last mechanical quality, namely, its immobility".

"To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatever. The fundamental facts of mechanics do not harmonize with this view".

"What is fundamentally new in the ether of the general theory of relativity as opposed to the ether of Lorentz consists in this, that the state of the former is at every place determined by connections with the matter and the state of the ether in neighbouring places, which are amenable to law in the form of differential equations; whereas the state of the Lorentzian ether in the absence of electromagnetic fields is conditioned by nothing outside itself, and is everywhere the same. The ether of the general theory of relativity is transmuted conceptually into the ether of Lorentz if we substitute constants for the functions of space which describe the former, disregarding the causes which condition its state. Thus we may also say, I think, that the ether of the general theory of relativity is the outcome of the Lorentzian ether, through relativation".

The whole of SR is a theoretical circumstance, because it was the result of extricating himself from "only apparently irreconcilable" (page 1 1905), which he explained in section 7 GR & SR 1916. The point is that in 1905, he invoked caveats that meant matter and light could not co-exist, if one presumes 1905 to be a cohesive theory. That is, light is in vacuo (ie nothing is available to interact with it), whereas objects were not in vacuo (ie something was available to interact with them, because they incurred dimension alteration in certain circumstances).

Here are a few quotes which indicate what Einstein actually defined SR as:

1 Einstein Foundation of GR 1916, section A, sub sec 1:

"We call this postulate "The Special Relativity Principle." By the word special, it is signified that the principle is limited to the case, when K' has uniform translatory motion with reference to K, but the equivalence of K and K' does not extend to the case of non-uniform motion of K' relative to K. The special theory of relativity does not depart from classical mechanics through the postulate of relativity, but through the postulate of the constancy of the velocity of light in vacuo."

"According to the special relativity theory, the theorems of geometry are to be looked upon as the laws about any possible relative positions of solid bodies at rest."

2 Einstein Foundation of GR 1916, section A, sub sec 3:

"the case of special relativity appearing as a limiting case when there is no gravitation."

3 Einstein SR & GR 1916, section 28:

"The special theory of relativity has reference to Galileian domains, ie to those in which no gravitational field exists."

"In gravitational fields there are no such things as rigid bodies with Euclidean properties; thus the fictitious rigid body of reference is of no avail in the general theory of relativity."

4 Einstein SR & GR 1916, section 18:

"the special principle of relativity, i.e. the principle of the physical relativity of all uniform motion. Let us once more analyse its meaning carefully. It was at all times clear that, from the point of view of the idea it conveys to us, every motion must only be considered as a relative motion."

"If it is simply a question of detecting or of describing the motion involved, it is in principle immaterial to what reference-body we refer the motion. As already mentioned, this is self-evident, but it must not be confused with the much more comprehensive statement called "the principle of relativity,""

"we started out from the assumption that there exists a reference-body K, whose condition of motion is such that the Galileian law holds with respect to it: A particle left to itself and sufficiently far removed from all other particles moves uniformly in a straight line."

"provided that they are in a state of uniform rectilinear and non-rotary motion with respect to K; all these bodies of reference are to be regarded as Galileian reference-bodies. The validity of the principle of relativity was assumed only for these reference-bodies, but not for others (e.g. those possessing motion of a different kind). In this sense we speak of the special principle of relativity, or special theory of relativity. In contrast to this we wish to understand by the "general principle of relativity" the following statement: All bodies of reference are equivalent for the description of natural phenomena (formulation of the general laws of nature), whatever may be their state of motion."

5 Einstein SR & GR 1916, section 22:

"However, we obtain a new result of fundamental importance when we carry out the analogous consideration for a ray of light. With respect to the Galileian reference-body K, such a ray of light is transmitted rectilinearly with the velocity c. It can easily be shown that the path of the same ray of light is no longer a straight line when we consider it with reference to the accelerated chest (reference-body K'). From this we conclude, that, in general, rays of light are propagated curvilinearly in gravitational fields. In two respects this result is of great importance...... In the second place our result shows that, according to the general theory of relativity, the law of the constancy of the velocity of light in vacuo, which constitutes one of the two fundamental assumptions in the special theory of relativity and to which we have already frequently referred, cannot claim any unlimited validity. A curvature of rays of light can only take place when the velocity of propagation of light varies with position. Now we might think that as a consequence of this, the special theory of relativity and with it the whole theory of relativity would be laid in the dust. But in reality this is not the case. We can only conclude that the special theory of relativity cannot claim an unlimited domain of validity; its results hold only so long as we are able to disregard the influences of gravitational fields on the phenomena (e.g. of light)."

Paul & Peter,

Einstein developed his theories based upon what was known at the time he made them, which included the assumptions he used. He revised his theories as new information became available. I seriously doubt Einstein would support a curved space theory of gravity from what is known today. The link below is a 1920 revision.

Relativity: The Special and General Theory (1920)

Einstein was aware of the Newtonian instantaneous influence at a distance, which is required to keep our planetary orbits from becoming ever increasing spirals. Einstein never mentioned permittivity and permeability in respect to his theories. I suspect Einstein did not know how to accommodate instantaneous influence at a distance and the presence of permittivity and permeability, thus he ignored them. Someone pushed him on the instantaneous influence at a distance issue, as he eventually responded with his "spooky" action at a distance statement.

There is a simple (ala Occam's Razor) explanation why the influence of gravity has a different "velocity" than the propagation velocity of the gravity field, but the explanation would invalidate SRT. The same explanation would accommodate the concept of quantum entanglement.

No need to go down the rabbit hole where we are constantly being taken, led by the disciples of the Mad Hatter.

Peter

Thanks for your response. I am honored that you felt my essay might be used to sort of pave the way for your views. As I said the confidence I had in writing it comes from a vision of a simple functional physics such as my much-vaunted Beautiful Universe Theory. I think we both have a similar approach to a an imagined ToE of local interactions.

The phased-array example you provided is very pertinent to our discussion but I do not think it annuls a vectorial approach to analysis. The vectors from each emitter of the array add up at any point in the field, and a wavefront is generated. Normal to the wavefronts energy flows along streamlines (defined by the Poynting vectors). It is only when the wavefronts are straight that light goes along straight rays, but in most cases (except that of turbulent flow where things become very messy) the vectors add up to curved streamlines. Please see my analysis in Figs. 10-13 of my Cancellation of Diffraction paper to see how straight vectors can describe curved streamlines

Cheers and good luck!

Vladimir

Frank

I am not commenting on the substance of his theory, as such, but making two points 1 1905 is not SR 2 The explanation of the essential core of his theory (ie dimension alteration) is incorrect because that is effected in the context of Poincare's simultaneity and spacetime, both of which deploy an invalid conception of time. In other words, the fundamental hypothesis (ie dimension alteration) may or may not be correct, but assessment of that should not involve considering the explanation.

Hall of Mirrors, was a phrase that came to my mind as I tried to track my way through these papers (I think I have that 1920 one on my list, but will check, thanks)

Paul

Frank

Sorry, meant to say soon after but got distracted. This is the 1916 paper isn't it, published in 1920, which I have somehow incorrectly slipped into referring to as SR & GR rather than S & G.

Paul

Peter

Since my last post, in researching material for a paper I am writing, I read a paper that sheds more light on the assumption issues. The author, J.H. Field, who has a cern.ch email address, used the term hypothesis and hypotheses, vice assumption(s), to describe what is influencing scientific thought. The paper was published in Physica Scripta - PHYS SCR , vol. 74, no. 6, pp. 702-717, 2006 DOI: 10.1088/0031-8949/74/6/018 , plus it is on arXiv.

Classic electrodynamics

At the end of section 6, the author states, "Regrettably science is, at the time of this writing, riddled by many 'hypotheses' of the type referred to in the first of the above quotations. One such hypothesis, that has persisted through much of the 19th century and all of the 20th is that: 'No physical influence can propagate faster than the speed of light'. This is contradicted by the arguments given above and, as discussed in the following section, also by the results of some recent experiments."

I note he used one of the several superluminal references I have cited in my new paper.

I found the term "virtual photon" and its characteristics interesting. It seems the "virtual photon" is a one-legged version of the traditional two-legged EM photon that has both an electric and magnetic field. Field didn't hesitate to use the term "instantaneous" numerous times in his paper. His paper passed peer review.

The paper I am preparing describes the mechanism that results in an "instantaneous" influence, and surprisingly, it uses the principles behind the virtual photon, which I had never heard of before.

Peter

"I agree entirely about "one REAL unit of everything" particularly time. Paul seemed to miss the below too"

I missed this post. This is not how timing works. Timing is an extrinsic assessment of the rate of change between realities. So, one takes any timing device (which could be any change sequence, but it is best to have a good one, snail movement just doesn't cut it!) and counts and compares sheer number of changes irrespective of type. Which includes, obviously, a start and a finish. Therefore, as at any given point in time (start and finish), A was at spatial point X, B was at spatial point Y, or whatever is being timed. Whilst D occurred (ie number of changes in any given attribute of A), E occurred (ie number of changes in any given attribute in B). The concept of 'whilst' need not be concurrent, when one has a timing device, because that is providing a reference (ie in quartz timing devices, crystal oscillation), so the comparison can be effected even if it does not involve concurrent events.

It has nothing to do with moving with the timing device, nor is there real and apparent time. Physically, what happens is that there is a time when there was physical existence. Then there is a subsequent time when a representation (from the perspective of the sensory system, and it is known as light in the sensory system of sight) of that physical existence reaches any given appropriate sensory receptor. The delay being a function of prevailing environmental conditions through which the light travelled, and distance between the reality, as at the point in time when it occurred, and the 'eye', as at the point in time when reception of the light occurred. That is, not the distance between the two when the reality occurred, because relative movement can occur whilst the light is travelling.

This simple fact reveals an optical illusion, which many ascribe to being something more than it physically is:

As light travels, there is a delay between the time of occurrence of the existent state (reality), reaction with which resulted in the light at the same time, and the time of the receipt of that light by any given sentient organism. That delay will vary as a function of the distance involved, and the speed with which the light actually travelled in each experience (ie the extent to which environmental conditions had an impact). If there was no significant variable environmental impact, then the perceived rate of any given change in a physical sequence will remain the same, so long as the on-going relative spatial position remains constant amongst everything involved. This is because, while the value of the delay is different depending on distance, it remains constant.

However, when relative distance is altering, then the perceived rate of change alters, because the delay is ever increasing (or decreasing) at a rate which depends on the rate at which the distances are altering. It is a perceptual illusion, as the actual rate of physical change does not alter.

Paul

Peter

The speed of the bullet wrt to the video camera, or anything else on the platform, is not v+c The bullet is travelling at c, you said so. It is not part of the train. Unless the train is hermetically sealed, in the sense that it is solid. In which case the speed would be the composite speed wrt all that which was on the platform. For somebody or something on the train, indeed including he train itself, the speed of the bullet is c-v wrt these things, assuming the bullet was fired in the same direction as the motion of the train, because they are travelling at v, you said so.

Seeing the rest of the train, with or without boxes, and videoing it, is irrelevant, because seeing is not calibrating light speed. The only way that could be done is by calculating timings for light travel and distances in each circumstance (assuming all environmental conditions were equal, ie no one particular light was impeded in travelling more than any other).

There is a physical reality (ie platforms, trains, people, bullets, etc). As at a point of its existence, there is interaction which generates light (which is a physical reality of itself). This travels.

Furthermore, time periods have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with observers, constancy, or frames. Timing is not affected by reality, because it is not of reality, it is an extrinsic human measuring system which rates change, eg whilst 100k oscillations occurred in my quartz watch, the elephant moved 10 yards.

Paul

Peter,

I don't think Einstein really understood the characteristics of electromagnetic (EM) fields and the medium in which they are permitted to propagate. The paper (Classical electrodynamics) by J.H.Field, cited in my previous post, attempts to provide a better explanation by invoking the term "virtual photon". Whether a one-legged virtual photon or a regular two-legged EM photon, the field possessed by the photon doesn't just go away after the photon has passed by on its journey, it diminishes at 1/r2. Even after the photon actors have left the stage, just like a heavily perfumed person passing by, something about them remains where they have been and keeps spreading long after they passed by a particular viewing position.

In a previous post (Jul. 22, 2012), I stated I could not find a mention of permittivity-permeability (P-P) in Einstein's relativity theories. If Einstein had included these characteristics in his theories, he would have had to add some locality conditionals to justify the relativity concepts he published.

It is the P-P of the material in which an EM field is allowed to propagate that determines the velocity of propagation. It is the way we attempt to explain the velocity difference as light passes through two materials with different P-P that creates a problem. Light does not decelerate when it transitions from a vacuum and enters glass, nor accelerates after leaving, it changes velocity and the velocity change is probably instantaneous at the transition interface. Let the mathematicians argue about whether it is possible to mathematically present an instantaneous change in velocity.

I do not support the contention that there is "instantaneous" action at a distance regardless of distance. It just appears so within the confines of our solar system distances, a characteristic that is needed to allow the development of complex biological forms.

Peter

Well I think, as per my response to you about 'ether/space', they 'wrote off' any effect on dimension that is caused by travelling through this 'medium', which certainly is something (as Einstein said), against time variance (which actually does not exist) which is accommodated for in the Lorentz transformation. Physically, it might be that matter travelling through 'space' and interacting with that which constitutes 'space' does encounter some dimensional effect, ie what you are referring to as background. This is in addition to the effect of gravitational forces which are 'transmitted' through the same 'space'. Now, that definitely causes a 'step change'(ie 'noticeable' alteration in dimension and momentum), supposedly. My point here being that the first effect is omnipresent. So apart from being similar to trying to track the leaf movement attributable to continental drift!, since it is all pervading there is no reference to establish relative difference. Unless, rather like reality expansion, the rates change in particular circumstances. But I suggest you go down the pub and have a couple of beers rather than tackling that.

SR does not need unifying with anything, it is a purely hypothetical circumstance that is bound to work, because it is so caveated. It's a bit like me defining cows as being...biological defintion of cow...that are just black and white. It is true in accord with its own definition. GR being the entire population of cows. The problem with relativity is in its interpretation through simultaneity and space time. Dimension alteration may or may not occur, and in respect of those two possibilities. QM is a different issue, this relies on a flase presumption as to what measurement does, and what for the most part is being measured. Because measurement (which is a form of sensing) cannot affect reality, it existed previously, and in most measurements it is not reality per se, anyway, that is being measured, but an effect resulting from an interaction with it (aka light). And reality must occur with certainty, it does not exist in some sort of 'muddled' state. This is a classic case of 'please do not adjust your sets we are having problems with transmission' gone wrong. The problem is us, not reality.

Paul

Frank

"I don't think Einstein really understood the characteristics of electromagnetic (EM) fields and the medium in which they are permitted to propagate"

As far as I understand it we still don't. Also as an outsider, I get this impression of most people addressing what was said then as if it had just been said yesterday. When Lorentz postulated dimension change there were no cars, planes. Then we had two dreadful wars and a depression in between. Then the likes of me and Peter were born. In other words, although it appears 'not long ago', it was a completely different world.

Also, in my reading of these papers, as an outsider, which has value because I just read what is there, they were really talking about the electrodynamics of movement. Light just got 'muddled' up in this, one reason being that an expectation about the speed of light was what prompted the whole train of thought. Another one being because light speed was substituted for distance, incorrectly, in a (non) equation of time (ie it involved the concept of 'then' back, so a constant was attributed with variance. Instead of being A-B or B-A which is the same, the two became different).

On the subject of action. By definition, only that which existed at the previous point in time can potentially have any influence, and even then, by definition, that which can, will be limited to that which was adjacent to. In simple language, something cannot be directly affected by something unless it is next to it, and something cannot be affected by something which did not exist immediately previously. Now, that all might sound a dreadfully simplified summation of a very complex circumstance. But this is the power of considering things generically. Forget all the content-'wood for the trees' stuff. You alight on the essence of the problem here with the word "appears". Fundamentally, we are sensing a movie, but in explaining it, we are not decomposing to the single frame level. Which is differentiatable by reference to the fastest rate of change which occurs in reality (ie a clock based on this unit of timing would 'reveal' all).

Paul