Essay Abstract

According to H. Poincaré, only the purport of physical laws (P) and the geometry (G) combined as a whole can describe nature (N). Equally well, the expression (N)=(G)+(P) symbolically describes the paradigm. Using the premise "a universe as a whole cannot change its finite energy content", this essay questions the contemporary scientific paradigm by investigating the 19th century assumptions that defined (P) that have affected the 20th century choice of (G).

Author Bio

Anton Lorenz Vrba obtained in 1974 a B.Sc (Elec. Eng.) from the University of Pretoria. He pursued a career of R&D, manufacturing and construction project management.

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  • [deleted]

Anton,

Interesting way of getting a concept across! I had thought of trying the same, and may still in another essay contest.

I haven't gone through your math in detail yet, but you state:"In hyper-space, a particle, which is a wave, always has to propagate at the speed of light in some direction defined by a vector v; however, in the observable three dimensions that particle can have any velocity between zero and the speed of light, depending on the orientation of v."

This sounds quite a bit like Brian Greene's "speed through time". Comments on it?

Thanks

Jeff Baugher

    • [deleted]

    And I don't mean to imply this was Brian Greene's idea (Google "Everything travels at the speed of light"). I am not sure who first noticed it. If you could explain the differences between that concept and your theory, it might help speed people along.

    Thanks

    Jeff

    Jeff,

    Thanks for your comments.

    I have not read any of Brian Greene's works and googled as you suggested. After a brief familiarisation of his idea, (mainly through physicsforums.com) I can comment that Greene's idea and the idea presented in my essay may, at first on the surface, seem similar; however the basic concept and developments that follow from it, both are vastly different to Greene.

    I use the concept of "every thing travels at the speed of light" to derive the "relativistic mass dilation" in a Euclidean multi-dimensional geometry without resorting to the special relativity's space-time continuum.

    Anton,

    You end with an Einstein quote that deifies math. To me math is a tool to aid the modeling of processes we don't understand, based on a hypothesis we set out to prove.

    I am not a mathematician, so perhaps my understanding is flawed but I have done my share of models.

    Jim

      Dear Anton,

      I enjoyed reading your paper immensely. The first thing that struck me about it was the superb typography and attention to details such as fonts and layout. The pdf says you used the font Palladio (designed by the Einstein of typography Herman Zapf). Excellent choice.

      The second thing I enjoyed was your reference to Poincaré's ideas. I found new respect for him after reading how Poincaré's book influenced both Einstein and Picosso's thinking . Try to read Miller's book it is fascinating and very well researched.

      Your essay itself was lucid and enjoyable - I enjoyed reading Douglas Adams' the Hitchhiker's Guide series and your presentation of Betelgeusian physics was made even more credible by the fictional narrative. Yes Special Relativity should be replaced by another paradigm. Yes space and time are absolute, yes the speed of light is not constant. I am unable to judge P_b or G_b without further study of your paper, but I feel that while the quadrature force concept might lead to the right results, it may be an unnecessary complication if a better understanding of the basic elements of space be discovered one day. I agree with you however that the interaction of elements making up space should provide a full explanation of electromagnetism and gravity.

      With best wishes and good luck,

      Vladimir

        Thanks Vladimir,

        Pleasing to note that my efforts in readability and presentation is appreciated. However, in the end it is the content that is judged.

        My primary aim with this essay is a wakeup call; in my opinion, the time is right to start a serious discussion on the validity of our basic fundamental principles. The new geometry (G_b) and purport of physical laws (P_b), which were (with the benefit of hindsight ) constructed in a few evenings, are incidental and have the purpose of showing that alternate solutions to describe nature do exist. We just need to define the right ones.

        Regards

        Anton

        Jim,

        However, our aim is to find the mathematical laws of nature and not merely to create models. (Please, no disrespect to your past experience)

        Regards

        Anton

        • [deleted]

        I like your style. :) That essay was written well.

        • [deleted]

        Anton,

        I appreciate you taking the time to read my essay, topic 1294, and replying thereon. I am surprised that not one mathematician has remarked about the concept presented by the IEEE paper cited in the essay, as it represents a fundamentally different way to apply mathematics to physical law.

        From your Introduction:

        "The first thing to say is how bleak the present situation is. In foundational studies of mathematics and physics we have been stuck for seventy years; despite numerous books, articles, and meetings, there has been no real progress. Edward Nelson [9] (2002)"

        There is a good reason why real scientific progress has stagnated. For over a century, all those that pursue advanced degrees in mathematics and physics have attended what is essentially the "Bernie Madoff University of Physics and Economics", where the attendees have been taught to believe everything that is presented to them without question, and if you were brazen enough to question, you were expelled, no dissidents allowed.

        I noted how you defined the speed of light, "where c is the speed of light in empty space."

        You might appreciate the utter simplicity of how a slight change in the orientation of the propagating electric and magnetic fields will result in an attractant only force. Helical Electromagnetic Gravity

        • [deleted]

        Anton,

        I am not a participant of this contest, however I found your essay most stimulating.

        It raises many arguments, possibly the most important with profound implications is what you term the Michelson Morley Einstein Information Paradox. This needs to be discussed openly, it cannot be ignored. You may have found a crack in the Einstein theory.

        Can anyone explain this paradox away?

        good luck

        Peter

          Peter,

          Thanks for stopping by. I too would be interested in an explanation for the raised paradox.

          Regards

          • [deleted]

          Hi Peter and Anton,

          You might have a look at Fig. 5 in my fourth essay and if necessary at the additional explanation I gave right now in the discussion in reply to Pentcho Valev.

          Curious,

          Eckard

          • [deleted]

          Dear Anton,

          You wrote: " 'Sub specie aeterni Poincaré, in my opinion, is correct. . . .' Really? I beg to differ'.

          Are you differing with Poincare or Einstein?

          What does "Sub specie aeterni" mean in the context Einstein used it? I think it means 'superficially'.

          I quote an extract from your reference (3): http://www.zionism-israel.com/Albert_Einstein/albert_einstein_Geometry_Experience.htm

          "Envisaged in this way, axiomatic geometry and the part of natural law which has been given a conventional status APPEAR as epistemologically equivalent".

          "Sub specie aeterni Poincaré, in my opinion, is right. The idea of the measuring-rod and the idea of the clock co-ordinated with it in the theory of relativity do not find their exact correspondence in the real world. It is also clear that the solid body and the clock do not in the conceptual edifice of physics play the part of irreducible elements, but that of composite structures, which may not play any independent part in theoretical physics. But it is my conviction that in the present stage of development of theoretical physics these ideas must still be employed as independent ideas; for we are still far from possessing such certain knowledge of theoretical principles as to be able to give exact theoretical constructions of solid bodies and clocks.".

          "Envisaged in Poincare's way G + P convention APPEAR to give equivalent theories. If you take this superficially Poincare is right".

          This is why I say that Einstein was not agreeing with G+P = N. If you scroll down a few paragraphs, you find Einstein stating HIS POSITION.

          "The question whether the structure of this continuum is Euclidean, or in accordance with Riemann's general scheme, or otherwise, is, according to the view which is here being advocated, properly speaking a physical question which must be answered by experience, AND NOT A QUESTION OF A MERE CONVENTION TO BE SELECTED ON PRACTICAL GROUNDS. Riemann's geometry will be the right thing if the laws of disposition of practically-rigid bodies are transformable into those of the bodies of Euclid's geometry with an exactitude which increases in proportion as the dimensions of the part of space-time under consideration are diminished".

          So Einstein's view was not G+P = N. His view was more like G_P = N

          History repeats itself. Newton made it clear in the Preface to the very first edition of Principia, that he is writing a provisional make shift theory because he is unable with the present knowledge to develop the "Truer Method of Philosophy" (i.e. Geometric_physics based on least particles - read as quanta of energy). But his followers took hold of the makeshift theory, turn it into a dogma and formed an orthodoxy hostile to any new thinking. Same thing has happened with Einstein.

          I quote an extract from my essay:

          Einstein wrote: ".. But quite apart from the superiority of one or the other (i.e., NM or RT), the fictitious character of fundamental principles is perfectly evident from the fact that we can point to two essentially different principles, both of which correspond with experience to a large extent.". (1, p.393). It must be clear from this statement that Einstein held that not only Newtonian foundation to be fictitious, but also that the foundation of his own theory of relativity to be fictitious!!.

          In regard to the fictitious axioms in the foundations of physics Einstein wrote: "If, then, it is true that the axiomatic basis of theoretical physics cannot be extracted from experience but must be freely invented (fictitiously), can we ever hope to find the right way? Nay more has the right way any existence outside our illusions? ......". We need to note that in answering the above question , Einstein firmly asserted that the right way will be based on simplest of mathematical ideas: " ..without a hesitation that there is, in my opinion a right way, and that we are capable of finding it (in the future) ...Our experience hitherto justifies us in believing that nature is a realization of the simplest conceivable mathematical ideas. (thus quite in contrast to the abstruse mathematical formalisms of SRT and GRT), I am convinced that we can (i.e. WILL be able to) discover by means of purely mathematical constructions, the concepts and laws connecting them with phenomena" (1, p. 398). We must note that Einstein indicates here candidly that RT is directing not quite towards the 'right way' and implies that RT will be surpassed and replaced when the 'right way' is found.

          In regard to Geomeric_physics We must remember Galileo: "Philosophy (i.e. Physics) is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one wanders about in a dark labyrinth" .

          I have developed the type of geometric_physics, Newton and Einstein were predicting. It is only a small beginning. Summary of it is compiled for the FQXi essay.

          I developed "Geometrodynamics of energy" having identified the following foundational problems and to rectify them.

          I quote the list of problems:

          "We may note that among the problematic foundational concepts created by Newton that have congenitally infected RT and QM are a) the primacy of the concepts of space and time, b) representation of bodies as mass-points without internal structure, c) consideration of centrifugal force as a pseudo-force, d) the closed system with the consequent inability to account for inflow and outflow of energy between the system and the field etc. e) Not recognizing that it is by the two quantities of energy (Mc2 and pc) fusing together to form a system that motion occurs. f) the omission of the fact that a fraction of the applied energy of motion pc gets usurped for the co-movement with the location. g) Not developing the theory with state changes of energy as the basis of its physical geometry. With these congenital foundational problems being inherent in these two progeny theories as well, it should be obvious that revamping of physics must begin from where the problems originated".

          If you can find the time, I request you to please have a look at my essay - "A Treatise on Fundamental Problems of Physics" posted on Sep 06 on FQXi. And comment on it.

          Best regards,

          Viraj

          • [deleted]

          Anton Lorenz Vrba

          Have you read my essay?

          http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1413

          7 days later

          Dear Anton,

          You say ''This universe has an energy content of E = (M + m)c²''

          Well, that would be right if your universe, your particles have been created by some outside intervention, by some Creator. Since I prefer to live in a universe which creates itself out of nothing, without any outside intervention, in a universe which can be understood rationally, that is, which obeys the conservation law according to which what comes out of nothing has to add to nothing, the energy content of my universe is zero.

          The UP is interpreted to say that virtual particles can appear by borrowing the energy to exist from the vacuum, for a time inversely proportional to their energy. From the UP it is but a small step to a Self-Creating Universe (SCU) where real particles can be thought of as virtual particles which by alternately borrowing and lending each other the energy to exist, force each other to reappear again and again after every disappearance, at about the same place. Your universe only has a non-zero energy content because you, like everybody, assume that particles only are the source, the cause of interactions, of fields and forces.

          As in a SCU particles have to create themselves, each other, here particles and particle properties must be as much the product as the source of their interactions, a fact which has quite interesting consequences for physics as you can see in my essay ('Einstein's Error') or the more extended study at my website (www.quantumgravity.nl).

          If with ''From Planck's relation E = h f, it can be said that, one cycle of a light wave of frequency f is equivalent to an energy quanta h.'' you mean that h refers to a minimum energy quantity, a smallest building block of energy, then I must disagree. Planck's law describing blackbody radiation says that there are more energy levels for particles to occupy per energy interval at higher energies, so the energy difference between subsequent energy levels keeps decreasing without limit at increasing temperatures, to become infinitesimal at infinite temperatures.

          Anton

            Hi Anton

            I note your comments, but that is not what my essay is about.

            The essay essentially reduces to the question of an underlying absolute reality versus merely the ability to model relative reality.

            Once that question is answered only then can one think about explaining "something from nothing"

            Regards

            Anton