Essay Abstract

Thanks (again) to astronomers, we now can only account for 4% of the mass and energy density that appears to be governing the motions in our Universe. Ernst Mach once wrote "The general experience cannot be constructed from the particular case given to us. We must, on the contrary, wait until such an experience presents itself. Perhaps when our physico-astronomical knowledge has been extended, it will be offered somewhere in the celestial space, where more violent and complicated motions take place than in our environment.", "If, however, we so interpret it that we come into conflict with our experience, our interpretation is simply wrong." and "Also when we speak of the attractions or repulsions of bodies, it is not necessary to think of any hidden causes of the motions produced. We signalize by the term attraction merely an actually existing resemblance between events determined by conditions of motions and the results of our volitional impulses." In this essay, we take Mach's wisdom to heart and re-examine whether one of our foundational assumptions, the modeling of forces as vectors, is mathematically complete and whether we have simply misinterpreted what we choose to see.

Author Bio

J.P. Baugher is a PhD student newly interested in the history of field theory.

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JP,

If given the time and the wits to evaluate over 120 more entries, I have a month to try. My seemingly whimsical title, "It's good to be the king," is serious about our subject.

Jim

Jeff,

As of 7-6-13, 7:37 am EST, the rating function for your essay is not available. Sorry I can't help you out right now by rating your essay. NOTE: I have logged in using a PC and a MAC and different browsers but it appears to be a site function issue.

Manuel

    Manuel,

    Thanks for the heads up on the voting. I will email a site admin. Looks like someone went through and voted a "1" for the essays that came after mine but didn't vote for a certain section at all. The site malfunction would seem to explain the missed section.

    I will be certain to read through yours also.

    Thanks

    Jeff

    Jeff,

    I have sent an email requesting that FQXi extend to those of you who had their essay posted on July 5, 2013, be allowed additional days to compensate for the days of not being able to rate these essays.

    My experience in conducting the online Tempt Destiny (TD) experiment from 2000 to 2012 gave me an understanding of the complexities involved in administrating an online competition which assures me that the competition will be back up and running soon. Ironically, the inability of not being able to rate the essays correlates with the TD experimental findings, as presented in my essay, which show how the acts of selection are fundamental to our physical existence.

    Anyway, I hope that all entrants will be allocated the same opportunity to have their essay rated when they are posted, and if not possible due to technical difficulties, will have their opportunity adjusted accordingly. Best wishes to you with your entry.

    Manuel

    PS I will be reviewing and rating your entry after this function has been turned back on.

    Jeff,

    Top job. Well done. I entirely agree the concept of vectors is inadequate and have argued the inadequacy of Cartesian systems for modelling motion.

    Indeed Einstein referred to 'planes' forming 'bodies', not 'wire frame' inertial systems.

    You may be shocked to read mine as I've distinguished between mathematical descriptions and physical entities, falsifying the foundation of predicate logic and calculus A=A. This agrees but goes beyond your thesis, adding two more dimensions and considering 3D volumes as bodies in relative motion! Perhaps you could consider if your mathematical approach could ultimately extend to that?

    I'd comment Bill McHarris essay on nonlinear dynamics and chaos to you as more consistently explaining the foundations of mine, and stating;

    "Mathematics can state things with certainty; physics cannot." Which concept I think you may agree and which may perhaps help further. I do hope you can also read my essay and comment on the ontology I construct to produce a solution to the EPR paradox.

    I have one question. in the crystal, would the wave not represent both an increase and decrease in a 'ground state density? I suggest there can only be a reduction if a surplus is extracted to condense some local particle or planet, rather like a pearl in an oyster?

    But very well done for some excellent and quite revolutionary thinking, also nicely explained and presented.

    Very best of luck in the contest.

    Peter

      Peter,

      Many thanks for the kind words and the review. I will require reading your essay several times in order to ensure I am following your arguments correctly, but a brief review of it certainly gives me the impression that our arguments follow similar paths concerning the EPR paradox.("But many more degrees of freedom may exist in a 4D wavefunction.").

      As for the wave in the crystal, it doesn't seem plausible that the wave structure itself would be as simple as a single decrease (as an example Faraday considered EM waves to have two traveling wavefronts to account for birefrigence) but I do think it is a useful mental aid in understanding the difference between the Poisson equation, the perturbations of linearized gravity and what I am proposing. I do think perhaps the surplus would be a path to develop on understanding anti-matter, and it would seem be to be a requirement in what I am proposing but looking to take baby steps.

      I will also make a review of Bill McHarris work as you recommended.

      Kind Regards,

      Jeff

      Sorry Jeff,

      I have received word that although it was unfortunate that there was a delay in conducting the ratings, no extensions to the final deadline will be made. I will keep this in mind when I get a chance to review your essay later this week.

      Best wishes,

      Manuel

      Dear Peter,

      Thank you for presenting your nice essay. I saw the abstract and will post my comments soon. So you can produce matter from your thinking or from information description of that matter. . . . ?

      I am requesting you to go through my essay also. And I take this opportunity to say, to come to reality and base your arguments on experimental results.

      I failed mainly because I worked against the main stream. The main stream community people want magic from science instead of realty especially in the subject of cosmology. We all know well that cosmology is a subject where speculations rule.

      Hope to get your comments even directly to my mail ID also. . . .

      Best

      =snp

      snp.gupta@gmail.com

      http://vaksdynamicuniversemodel.blogspot.com/

      Pdf download:

      http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/essay-download/1607/__details/Gupta_Vak_FQXi_TABLE_REF_Fi.pdf

      Part of abstract:

      - -Material objects are more fundamental- - is being proposed in this paper; It is well known that there is no mental experiment, which produced material. . . Similarly creation of matter from empty space as required in Steady State theory or in Bigbang is another such problem in the Cosmological counterpart. . . . In this paper we will see about CMB, how it is generated from stars and Galaxies around us. And here we show that NO Microwave background radiation was detected till now after excluding radiation from Stars and Galaxies. . . .

      Some complements from FQXi community. . . . .

      A

      Anton Lorenz Vrba wrote on May. 4, 2013 @ 13:43 GMT

      ....... I do love your last two sentences - that is why I am coming back.

      Author Satyavarapu Naga Parameswara Gupta replied on May. 6, 2013 @ 09:24 GMT

      . . . . We should use our minds to down to earth realistic thinking. There is no point in wasting our brains in total imagination which are never realities. It is something like showing, mixing of cartoon characters with normal people in movies or people entering into Game-space in virtual reality games or Firing antimatter into a black hole!!!. It is sheer a madness of such concepts going on in many fields like science, mathematics, computer IT etc. . . .

      B.

      Francis V wrote on May. 11, 2013 @ 02:05 GMT

      Well-presented argument about the absence of any explosion for a relic frequency to occur and the detail on collection of temperature data......

      C

      Robert Bennett wrote on May. 14, 2013 @ 18:26 GMT

      "Material objects are more fundamental"..... in other words "IT from Bit" is true.

      Author Satyavarapu Naga Parameswara Gupta replied on May. 14, 2013 @ 22:53 GMT

      1. It is well known that there is no mental experiment, which produced material.

      2. John Wheeler did not produce material from information.

      3. Information describes material properties. But a mere description of material properties does not produce material.

      4. There are Gods, Wizards, and Magicians, allegedly produced material from nowhere. But will that be a scientific experiment?

      D

      Hoang cao Hai wrote on Jun. 16, 2013 @ 16:22 GMT

      It from bit - where are bit come from?

      Author Satyavarapu Naga Parameswara Gupta replied on Jun. 17, 2013 @ 06:10 GMT

      ....And your question is like asking, -- which is first? Egg or Hen?-- in other words Matter is first or Information is first? Is that so? In reality there is no way that Matter comes from information.

      Matter is another form of Energy. Matter cannot be created from nothing. Any type of vacuum cannot produce matter. Matter is another form of energy. Energy is having many forms: Mechanical, Electrical, Heat, Magnetic and so on..

      E

      Antony Ryan wrote on Jun. 23, 2013 @ 22:08 GMT

      .....Either way your abstract argument based empirical evidence is strong given that "a mere description of material properties does not produce material". While of course materials do give information.

      I think you deserve a place in the final based on this alone. Concise - simple - but undeniable.

      ===============

      Please try Dynamic Universe Model with some numerical values, give initial values of velocities, take gravitation into consideration( because you can not experiment in ISOLATION). complete your numerical experiment.

      later try changing values of masses and initial values of velocities....

      Calculate with different setups and compare your results, if you have done a physical experiment.

      I sincerely feel it is better to do experiment physically, or numerically instead of breaking your head on just logic. This way you will solve your problem faster.....

      Best

      =snp

        Jeff,

        I suggest perhaps not only the wave as an up down fluctuation, for energy conservation, but (adding the dimension) as an 'energy density fluctuation.'

        I agree with Faraday, and indeed Raman also found such birefringence (and multirefringence) in diffuse media including the atmosphere in his (1930 Nobel winning) work.

        On a slightly different tack to you I've found this is a temporal difference as well as one of 'optical axis' of re-emission (Raman scattering), which is refraction, then kinetic reverse refraction is stellar aberration from waves (as I've just written elsewhere, without the aid of ballistics and umbrellas!). The interactions through a diffuse medium are progressive, so the light path appears to curve, but is quantized. (An anticedent of my co-author dubbed this effect 'space-time' but that's been confusing.) That is rather a leap not a baby step (in my last years essay), but it does seem to work consistently.

        I do hope you get to read my essay again slowly. Like last years, it can't be 'speed read' or most of the chocolate Easter eggs and Lego bits remain hidden and the significant ontological construction showing it's much needed top scoring value can't be built. On that subject, one thing I do object to is your entirely unacceptable lowly score and position, which I appear able to effect a significant affect on so shall.

        Best of luck in the contest. I look forward to any further comments.

        Peter

        Dear Jeff

        1.I see your positive attitude to Ernst Mach and recommend Frank Wilczek article about him

        http://ctpweb.lns.mit.edu/physics_today/phystoday/%28356%29Total%20Relativity.pdf

        2.I would like also recommend G.Hooft Nobel lecture about limitation of Calculus

        http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1999/thooft-lecture.pdf

        Regards

        Yuri

          Dear Jeff,

          Your idea is very intriguing. Does your Area Calculus then require two dimensions per integral (e.g. 4 dimensions for a double integral)?

          I did not quite follow how you went from the geometric arguments to the dynamical part, and unfortunately I am utterly unfamiliar with Nordstroem's theory (you might want to consider writing an expository paper on it at some point) but I hope that there will be some topologists/differential geometers/general relativists/astrophysicists looking at your paper.

          Finally, let me suggest that the final three sentences would seem to be more impactful at the beginning of the paper.

          All the best,

          Armin

            Hi dear Jeff,

            I have acquainted with your interesting work that written in attractive form.

            However I am definitely pessimistically that you will get some big successes on this way. If we will thinking pragmatically then first we need take into attention that there are a lot of theoretical investigations devoted to gravity problem. Those mostly are ,,working,, satisfactorily (parallel with Einstein's GR).

            And practically there no way to define experimentally which one is better, that will enough to recognise it as better than GR. I mean you can spent a lot of time in vain (sorry for such advice, but it is what I think)

            If you want listen my opinion on this matter then I will tell you something strange (from first view!) Just try read my work in which I try to say what goes on in the physics. After for you will become easy to perceive what I can tell you on gravity problem (if you find interest on this matter!) Essay

            Sincerely,

            George

              Dear Jeff,

              I agree with Armin that the most important sentences occured at the end of your essay, particularly: "We conclude that everything is up for review including our most basic assumptions.". It echoes my last year's fqxi paper entitled "Fix Physics!" by getting rid of outdated notions - like a fixed speed of light and the point photon.

              I only partially understood your suggestions to reform our basic notions of area and calculus, but could see where you were going with it : to explain a repulsive force and therefore Inflation. Another interesting part of your paper dealt with Nordstroem's gravitational theory that I was not aware of. I am now reading the fascinating paper you referenced by Norton a paragraph in it struck me where the question of density or internal energy of an object was rejected as being relevant to gravity.

              In my 2005 work-in-progress Beautiful Universe Theory also found here I posit a universal lattice (like the diamond you started out your essay with!) made up of a crystal like arrangement of rotating magnetic nodes. These repulse each other (++ and --) but also rotate so that (X-) attraction causes them to clump together to form matter, or simply rotate to transfer dipolar angular momentum that we call e/m radiation. Gravity is enacted by a change in density in the field surrounding matter (again like your wave in the diamond) I also called for a special maths, a discrete calculus.

              As they say Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Art - and Science - is vast, but life is short) I am over seventy now and I doubt I can prove my theory fully, but you are starting out, so the best of luck to you!

              Vladimir

              Peter,

              Sorry it has taken so long to reply. Was on holiday and didn't have reliable wifi connections in the Canary Islands. It does sound like we agree on the energy density fluctuation and will review your past work more in depth. I was able however to print out your essay for the flight back and read it more in depth.

              I can bolster your argument and will post to your thread an example of how A=A is not applicable in physical phenomenon, which I completely agree with. In essence, the postulates listed HERE are not necessarily valid for physical phenomenon (renomalization anyone?).

              Thank you so much for helping draw some attention to my essay!

              Kindest Regards,

              Jeff

              Hi SNP,

              Thanks for the kind comments. It would be more correct to call it a path to translate between wave functions and particle phenomenon, as well as an understanding of what "metric" field theories actually are. I look forward to looking through your essay also.

              Kind Regards,

              Jeff

              Dear Yuri,

              Yes, have to say I am a fan of Mach's thinking and skepticism. I was aware of t'Hooft but did not know that his lecture was on the limitations of Calculus, I certainly look forward to reading both of your recommendations.

              Kind Regards,

              Jeff

              Hi Armin,

              No, it simply requires two functions per integral (Nordstroem's Theory only used the single function of the Newtonian Potential). I would have to be careful about how I phrased my answer to your question. In the theory I am proposing a flat metric (-1,1,1,1) translates to a zero area 4 dimensional integral (no Action) and thus "dimensions" disappear. Dimensions require "curvature" to exist so without a wavefunction to curve "space-time" there also are no equations of motions. Not sure if that answered your question though, heh.

              It would be nice to have some published feedback, but unfortunately asking professional scientists to risk their standing and be willing to review basic calculus and metric theories is an extremely tall order. The symbolic form of the field equations would look so similar as to be confusing to a geometer who has baaed their life's work on manifold theory, but I am somewhat young and still hopeful.

              I have to write another paper on going from the motion of a particle into that of a wave function. It will probably have to be in a contest such as this that allows for fundamental questions.

              I will be certain to put that statement at the front in subsequent papers.

              Kind Regards,

              Jeff

              Hi George,

              Thank you for reading and considering my essay. Which other theories work satisfactorily along with GR (I take it you mean on scale of a solar system hence the LambdaCDM model)? I do know that there are other scalar-tensor models but am not aware any of these are helpful.

              I would have to disagree with you on knowing which one was "better". There are couple of sayings that I tend to like, "Cosmologists are often wrong, but never in doubt" and "You have a beautiful, elegant theory. Too bad it is wrong". When push comes to shove, it will come down to whether I can develop a computer model that more accurately predicts celestial movements better than what is currently available. I may never be able to get published in a "respectable" journal, but from my perspective all the theories within them are founded upon some fundamental mistakes that are finally peaking into to paradoxes that cannot be rectified without a paradigm change. I see no choice but to solve these issues outside the mainstream and believe that we live in the best time period to do so. That FQXi exists (and realizing that major funding is coming from The John Templeton Foundation, a man who apparently was at least unafraid to ask "What if what I believe to be true is not?", I think that there definitely is hope.

              I look forward to reading your essay.

              Kind Regards,

              Jeff