Misinterpreting Reality: Confusing Mathematics for Physics by Robert H McEachern

I have just begun to read your essay but feel overanxious to welcome your essay:

"More importantly, since the information content of the "meaning" of the equations is usually much greater than the information content of the equations themselves, the "meaning" cannot possibly be contained within the equations; the "meaning" has simply been made-up and slapped-on. The controversies and paradoxes surrounding non-locality, superposition, entanglement, and the uncertainty principle are all examples of this problem; the equations accurately describe the observations, it is only the slapped-on "meaning", that causes of all the difficulties in understanding."

James

Dear Robert H. McEachern,

You are addressing some interesting aspects of signal processing in a refreshing manner. I would like to suggest you reading not just my current essay but also the earlier one in order to crosscheck our ideas. In turn I would be interested in hints to your earlier work on signal processing. Unfortunately, you did not list any reference. I do not see Einstein's 1905 paper on relativity a good example.

Regards,

Eckard

Robert,

The "slapped-on meaning" seems to be the rule rather than the exception. You stated, "Here we only seek to illuminate an underlying bad assumption at the heart of the issue; namely that the number of components that exist in the mathematical description of an observation must necessarily equal the number of components that actually exist in the entity being observed."

A mathematical symbol and its associated descriptor(s) should contain all the entity's components such there is no confusion as to the meaning. Consider the symbol "c" for the speed of light. Does everyone understand that this is a measured value made in a vacuum some place on the Earth's surface at some unspecified position in the Earth's orbit around the Sun? When c is used, shouldn't it be noted it is being used as a theoretical value or a measured value? To avoid confusion, ct would represent theoretical and cme would represent measured on the Earth. There are more components to c than just length per unit time.

A pure mathematical derivation of the value for the speed of light is contained in the July/August 2011 IEEE Potentials article titled, "A methodology to define physical constants using mathematical constants".

IEEE Methodology

or for those without IEEE membership,

Postprint Methodology

The NASA/JPL web site for the Curiosity lander has a question and answer process, ask Dr.C. I submitted a question, before it landed, "What is the measured permittivity on the surface of Mars?" I am still waiting for a response.

Dear Robert H McEachern,

You've spent some time thinking about this. I've seen it pointed out before how little information is in equations, but no one has ever painted the consequences as well as you.

Thanks for your analysis of Bell's Theorem, although the Bell Believers may come looking for you with pitchforks. They have a lot riding on that horse.

Thanks also for your short lesson on Fourier analysis. I've claimed the same thing in my essay, The Nature of the Wave Function, [which I very much hope you will read and comment on] but you do so in such dispassionate manner, and so clearly.

Your discussion of the two-slit experiment was masterful. I had forgotten, if I ever knew, that the 2 slit response is a Sinc-function, not Gaussian. [I should have known--I took Fourier Optics from Joseph Goodman.]

Every paragraph of your wonderful essay is loaded with insight and information. It's too early to know what other great essays will yet be submitted, but todate yours may be the best.

Congratulations,

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Dear Robert McEachern,

I have read your very well written and interesting essay. Its very relevant to the essay question. You have given me a lot that I would like to think about. Well done.

You might enjoy George Ellis' and Dan Bruiger's entries. Different from your own interesting analysis of the problems of physics but some overlapping of ideas.

Good luck in the competition.

Dear Robert,

Yes, yes, yes, I totally agree with you when you say: "It is important to remember that nothing we have said alters any of the equations or predictions of the physical theories. We merely point out that the slapped-on misinterpretations of the 'meaning' and 'significance' of the equations is the source of all the 'weirdness'."

I have studied astronomy and computing as well as simulation modelling at MSc level. I would be very pleased if you would consider looking at a potential discovery I have made. Professor Iain Nicolson of Bayfordbury Observatory and the University of Hertfordshire advised me to solve the Ice Age Problem if I wanted to solve the t.o.e.

Newtons Isotropy and Equivalence Is Simplicity That Has Led to Modern Day Mass Misconceptions of Reality

Kind regards,

Alan

Dear Geophysicist Robert H. McEachern,

For me to describe your brilliantly written essay as being anything less than truly inspirational would be an insulting mean spirited disservice to you. There is a problem with your statement: "physicists seek to predict how physical substances behave." As I carefully pointed out in my essay Sequence Consequence, no two real snowflakes of the trillions that have fallen have ever scientifically been found to be identical. There is a real "Stop" sign on my corner. It is my contention that that "Stop" sign not only modifies the behavior of the real cars in my neighborhood, it affects all of the real cars presently on the planet and the real vehicle that has just been landed on Mars. Not only that, this insignificant "Stop" sign will alter the actual braking capability of every real car put into operation anywhere in the future. It has to. One real Universe can only be eternally occurring in one dimension once. Each and every real and imagined event taking place in that one real Universe has to be unique. Abstract equations do not a real thing make.

Robert,

You provide a noteworthy addition to the various entries here by seasoned professionals with jaundiced views on the current state of theoretical physics, based on lifetimes of professional experience that provide very deep understanding of the physical processes at work, which are not reflected in the forefront of the discipline. I, for one, hope some larger effort can grow out of this contest's call to "Question the Foundations."

Dear Mr. Makinson,

While I admire your appreciation for anyone being able to produce a real copy of a picture by using paint by numbers methodology I cannot help noticing that real artists produce real art without resorting to such a clever stratagem. I thought mathematics was supposed to be a science. Let us take your definition of mathematical applicability and apply it to Albert Einstein's unrealistic equation e=mc². Let us take a 10" by 10" canvas and place a 1" diameter circle with a number 1 in its center somewhere on the canvas. This circle represents abstract energy. Of course we know that real energy does not have a shape or a fixed color which is one of the reasons I believe that an equation does not make a real thing, but I could be wrong. We now have to pick a shape and a color for abstract mass. This is not as easy as it sounds. We can draw a triangle numbered 2 around the circle implying that abstract energy operates internally on abstract mass, or we could place a smaller triangle numbered 2 inside of the circle denoting that abstract energy is an external force. Perhaps we should draw both triangles and number the internal one 2 and the external one 3. Thankfully, the constant speed of abstract light can easily be depicted on our canvas because it is a square. All we have to do is make sure the area of the numbered 4 square plus the area of the numbered 2 triangle plus the area of the numbered 3 triangle equals the area of the circle numbered 1.

Joe,

You are violating one of the axioms presented in Robert's essay, "A mathematical symbol and its associated descriptor(s) should contain all the entity's components such there is no confusion as to the meaning." Geometry is a specific type of mathematical abstraction, and when used properly, it can provide a basis for describing physical law characteristics. You are using a geometric plane shape to represent some physical law concept with no supporting evidence except by definition, "a circle denoting abstract energy." You can get away with that slight-of-hand if you are an artist, as an artist does not have represent anything that is actually real. The paint-by-number process is attempting to replicate something that is real.

A physical characteristics of the universe is something entirely different, with a equation attempting to describe it in the abstract language of mathematics, which can use actual numeric values with their descriptors and/or symbols to represent numeric values and their descriptors. If you read the IEEE article cited in my essay, 1294, you will find that I used identical geometric shapes, each with proper dimensional descriptors, to describe two physical law characteristics, space (length) and a time dependent action (frequency). Note that the duration of time did not have to be defined, it became a function of the angle of the triangle. I did not have to know the size of the dimensions ahead of time.

Postprint Methodology

You utilized different geometric shapes to represent different physical law characteristics with no dimensional descriptors. You then concluded that a proper resultant could be achieved just by having all the shapes inside the circle equaling the area of the circle.

This essay contest is the result of the "physics fiction" created by the professionals, where they are using assumptions that everyone is supposed to accept without question. Would an intelligent species continue to use the meter as a scientific unit of measure when it has been demonstrated an "intrinsic length" can be mathematically defined?

Robert's essay exposes the sloppiness of the so-called scientific method as being practiced. I noted in an earlier comment how the symbol c, representing the speed of EM emissions, is supposed to be accepted without specifying whether it is a theoretical value or measured value. There is a difference.

Robert, thanks for your essay. It is important to expose some of the much publicized weirdness and confusion. It emphasized to me the importance of keeping context in our pursuit of understanding. Context can be thought of as the set of initial conditions lost when we use relationships to distill observations. From an information theory standpoint, context is the denominator in a probability that makes the probability meaningful. It is a large pertinent denominator that makes one observation interesting (not devoid of information...I like your definition). In my essay "A top-down approach to fundamental forces", I use a count of the total number of particles (WMAP) as a denominator in probabilities that I believe nature uses to present its information. Once the pertinent denominator is determined, it is maintained throughout the analysis since this allows extraction of meaningful information. Information can be operated on to create subsets that represent different things to us. For example in my work, I show that the logarithm 90 is divided into four parts we call dimensions and the result 22.5 represents the Higgs particle. Meaning is not lost since after the division by 4 we can say "In a universe that has exp(180) particles and four dimensions, one particle is the Higgs particle". If we just discover the Higgs particle we don't understand its context.

Dear Mr. Makinson,

Do forgive me for violating whatever it was I violated. I misunderstood your assessment that abstract mathematical equations can be compared to the production of a real paint by numbers picture. Now you assert that abstract mathematical equations can only be considered to be accurate providing they incorporate numbers that have real numeric values. That seems reasonable. The number 1 must have a real numeric value of 1. What is the real numeric value of 11? Do the first and second number 1s in the eleven have the same real numeric value as the first number 1 I typed? See, real things do not have a real numeric value, but they do constantly change. Is the number 11, eleven real numeric times the real numeric value of first 1? What is the real numeric value of the real space between the two 1's? Can the real numeric value of the space around the two ones equal the real numeric value of the space between the two ones? Does the real numeric value of space increase or decrease with its extensiveness? Does the real numeric value of the 1 depend on the size of its representation? I think it ought to. I think that there should be an official standard for number representation as there is for the measurement of the speed of light. Otherwise, it gets kind of Orwellian with tall 1's really equaling short 1's, and real big chasms equaling real narrow gaps.

Rather than reading your IEEE tract 1294 where you claim to use "identical geometric shapes" to prove something or other about reality, why do you not read my essay, Sequence Consequence where I prove conclusively to the complete satisfaction of anybody with a scrap of common sense that real identical states have never existed and real identical states will never exist. I am not saying that scientifically propounded abstract theorems which all use imaginary identical numbers and identical shapes and identical imaginary observation are wrong. I am saying they are all unrealistic. As I understood this essay contest, authors were asked to comment on "questioning the foundations, "and that is what I tried my best to do.

Hi Robert H. McEachern,

The essays in this contest have shown me that not everyone has TV commerical logic instilled in their brains. Your essay is brilliant and shows thinking that has been long thought through. Congradulations.

Jim Akerlund

Hello, Robert

It seems we are on a parallel track. Your analysis of quantum weirdness as an artifact of mathematical treatment is very interesting. I don't feel qualified to comment, but I do have a question: wouldn't "two entangled (anti-parallel) coins" be "spooky"?

Thanks for your wonderful essay.

Dan

Dan,

Unfortunately Robert doesn't seem to be participating in the conversation.

There are various entries in this contest which do a very credible job of addressing the topic of questionable assumptions built into theoretical physics, yours included. Given the rather conservative judging of previous contests, it seems reasonable to think the winner of this will be one which doesn't raise serious issues for the status quo. I'm thinking those of us who do think a serious review is necessary should select one entry to give a ten, then eights and nines for our other favorites. I feel Robert's entry would be the best candidate. Besides its many strengths for those us who have followed the topic for years, I think it would be most accessible and informative to the young technogeeks thinking of a career in theoretical physics. We don't need another generation chasing string theory and multiworlds.

What do you think?

Hi, Robert

OK, the state of a given coin is relative to the observer's position. But is the relationship between the two coins themselves also an artifact of the observer? By specifying that at the outset you have made it a matter of definition, but is it so in nature? A physical explanation of entangled correlations might be, for example, that they are two localities on a common wave front. How might that sort of explanation relate to the coin analogy, I wonder?

thanks,

Dan

Hi, John

I agree with you about the merit of Robert's contribution, though I don't follow all his arguments and confess I haven't read many of the submissions. Last year I simply abstained from "voting", and will probably do the same this year.

cheers,

Dan