Dear Efthimios,

Congratulations on your dedication to the competition and your much deserved top 35 placing. I have a bugging question for you, which I've also posed to all the potential prize winners btw:

Q: Coulomb's Law of electrostatics was modelled by Maxwell by mechanical means after his mathematical deductions as an added verification (thanks for that bit of info Edwin), which I highly admire. To me, this gives his equation some substance. I have a problem with the laws of gravity though, especially the mathematical representation that "every object attracts every other object equally in all directions." The 'fabric' of spacetime model of gravity doesn't lend itself to explain the law of electrostatics. Coulomb's law denotes two types of matter, one 'charged' positive and the opposite type 'charged' negative. An Archimedes screw model for the graviton can explain -both- the gravity law and the electrostatic law, whilst the 'fabric' of spacetime can't. Doesn't this by definition make the helical screw model better than than anything else that has been suggested for the mechanism of the gravity force?? Otherwise the unification of all the forces is an impossiblity imo. Do you have an opinion on my analysis at all?

Best wishes,

Alan

    Dear Alan,

    Thank you very much for your kind words.

    Newton's law of universal gravitation, to which you referred, is a mathematical expression that has no physical meaning, according to his inventor, Newton himself. This is the well-known "hypotheses non fingo" phrase of Newton:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypotheses_non_fingo

    The expression "fabric of spacetime", if I am not mistaken, is used for the 4-dimensional geometry of the spacetime of general relativity. There, gravity is not a force but only motion that results from the geometry of spacetime.

    I'm not sure we can talk about the mechanism of gravity when we do not know what gravity is in the first place. Regardless, as far as I know, any mechanism that has been proposed using some kind of "material influence", like graviton flux, for example, should create some type of drag on celestial bodies that has not been observed. It can also create heat that has not been observed.

    Gravity is a mysterious force. I believe, for whatever it worth, that what we call gravity is an "outside force" that makes our reality "functional", the term I use in my paper. The best mathematical model we have of this phenomenon today of that of general relativity on a macroscale.

    I am not sure if I answered your question, probably not I guess, but I am inclined to think that we should not be looking for a mechanism of gravity in our world of phenomena because it does not belong there. If it did, we would have known it already.

    Regards.

    Dear Efthimios,

    thanks for the link btw, I didn't know that one. I don't quite understand the "drag" aspect you talk of, other than the force of attraction. Why would a graviton create "heat"? okay through mechanical friction...ummm...I don't think we can say that this "hasn't been observed" due to no-one having entertained the idea in the first place.

    I just thought last night that the original quandry w.r.t the orbit of Mercury can likely be explained by the 'inclination hypothesis' i.e. that gravity is stronger on the plane of rotation of a celestial body. It's too much to explain in one go but there's plenty of circumstancial evidence to support this claim. I'm working on it right now.

    Best wishes,

    Alan

    2 months later

    Alan,

    You mentioned an " 'inclination hypothesis' i.e. that gravity is stronger on the plane of rotation of a celestial body."

    This sounds reasonable if you think of the GR concept of "frame dragging": At the equator the frame is dragged at a maximum rate, and it is null at the poles. This is also in accord with how matter affects the gravitational field around it in my Beautiful Universe theory: Any local effect is transferred from lattice node to its neighbors, so the dragging would indeed spread as the gravitational wave GR predicts, and as you observe, it is strongest at the equatorial plane because motion is fastest there.

    Best wishes from Vladimir

    a year later
    • [deleted]

    Dear Mr. Efthimios,

    I cannot possibly expect you to check this thread after a year but let's give it a shot.

    I feel some unease with your approach, however I am not educated in physics, so please be patient.

    To make it as clear as possible, as I understand it, your proposed experiment is essentially that of checking something what I would call the 'local computational capacity' of the universe, that would more precisely be 'time scale resolution computational capacity', as the proposed experiment concerns accelerated computation in a local preocupied space. Is that correct?

    I have some doubts about the realizability of this experiment, or, its interpretational value. You predict the appearance of a noise of some kind in the output, if your hypothesis is correct. However, you do not propose any of its particular properties. When eventually found, it would feel temptating to ascribe it to the features of the suggested virtual functional reality.

    But what would really be its nature? Probably it would be something of a stochastic process. Could it not be in the same manner related to the anyway profound question of nature of chance?

    Relatedly, I have a problem with your use of the term 'true description of reality'. I do not believe any such property can be ascribed to any scientific theory. Anyway, they are just the models of the universe, which itself is as it is (in the spirit of scientific realism). In this sense, all of physical theories are just tools for making more or less accurate predictions of matters, of course. None can be favoured because of its metaphysical foundations.

    I have no problem with the possibility of existence of fundamental limitations on the local (space- or time-bound) computational power of universe. However, your proposed idea indeed seems to me metaphysical in essence. I fail to see the signs of its testability.

    Kind regards,

    Michal Krajnansky

      2 years later

      Michael,

      I do not expect you to read this after two years. I do not approach experiments from an emotional viewpoint, like you said that you "feel some unease". People also felt unease to fly a plane or break the sound barrier last century. The only way to see what experiments produce is to do them. You say "However, your proposed idea indeed seems to me metaphysical in essence." But how can an experiment be metaphysical?

      "When eventually found, it would feel temptating to ascribe it to the features of the suggested virtual functional reality."

      No, this is not what the paper says. The paper says that "The objective of this experiment will be to falsify or corroborate the functional virtual reality model"

      I am looking for falsification indication, of the particular idea. If I get constraints on local computation, that can only be a loose corroboration of the virtual reality hypothesis. More experiments will have to be made and on different grounds to get a full corroboration. I am looking at a first step. That is all.

      Thank you.

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