[michellemfry]

You have described well how the universe, which contains all that exists, can actually contain other universes, and that is not easy to describe.

I'll let you know more another time. I have a strange desire to have a cigarette!

[baudrunner]

If you have been following my posts then you know that I do not believe that creation occurred with a Big Bang and here we are. That is too simplistic for my taste.

The subtle cascading of events after the separation of space and energy involves many phases of many Bangs that result from the random massive aggregations of primitive energy sub particles that form themselves out of the soup that the creation front leaves behind. The final phase produces the organization of galaxies in clusters randomly distributed within space and generally moving away from their centers of origin, ie. their local Big Bang. Cosmologists can easily be forgiven for thinking that there was one Big Bang because we are essentially the product of one. But why should that preclude the existence of other Bangs?

Astronomers in the past have observed that all the objects in the Universe are moving away from all the other objects in the Universe. This is observable from any place in the Universe. Closer observation has pointed out that this is evidently not entirely correct.

Photographic evidence and more contemporary theory provides evidence that contradicts the Big Bang theory. Not only that, apparently in about a billion years the Andromeda Galaxy is scheduled to collide with the Milky Way.

Below is a photograph of two galaxies in collision,

There are more such events ocurring in different parts of the Universe. In fact, considering that we have but scratched the surface in our observation of interesting objects in space compared to the total of what is out there there is no doubt a preponderence of colliding galaxies, further proving the likelihood of a Many Big Bangs scenario.

Here are two more photographs of colliding galaxies.

I'm convinced.

[baudrunner]

What is light and how does it happen?

The density of particles that exist within space is a determinant in the behaviour of energy waves in transit through it, as in the behaviour of light waves, since it is those particles which comprise the medium through which light is propagated. The only contribution that space makes to light propagation is the dimension of distance. It is the particle density in space, which increases in proportion to the proximity of a massive body due to the increased pull of its gravity, which contributes to the bending of the apparent path of light toward that body, and therefore we say that gravity bends light.

When Einstein wrote that nothing can exceed the speed of light he was, perhaps unwittingly, referring to the rate at which adjacent atoms affect each other, that is to say not how fast light travels in terms of absolute distance over time, but how fast it could propagate in the way we have described. There is a subtle difference. That rate was measured at occurring over a distance of 300,000 kilometres per second of time. This must be qualified by saying that this is the distance over which light propagates at one atmosphere of pressure on the surface of this planet, which is where all the experiments to determine the speed of light were conducted. The French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault discovered in 1850 that light propagates slower in water than in air, contrary to Newton's prediction that light "corpuscles" travel faster in that medium. Since the particulate density of intergalactic space, that is the space in between galaxies, is in the order of about 1 hydrogen atom per cubic centimetre, according to the noted contemporary Italian astronomer Paolo Maffei who presented that number for the sake of discussion, one can reasonably assume that the actual distance encountered there is considerably greater than the 300,000 kilometres for every second at 1G and 1 atmosphere of pressure.

A brief explanation of the behavioural dichotomy of light or, as it is known in classical physics particle-wave duality, is in order. When an atom goes from a higher energy state to a lower energy state a quanta of photonic energy is released. An atom absorbs a quanta of photonic energy when it goes from a lower energy state to a higher energy state by the application of energy from an external source. When atoms are agitated, as when they oscillate within the range of optical frequencies, discrete quanta of photonic energy are also released and reabsorbed. Whereas the tendency of an atom is to maintain a state of equilibrium - think of a foam rubber ball that you squeeze by applying pressure and then releasing that pressure, where the ball at rest is in a state of equilibrium - any attempt to alter that state requires the application of energy which is returned as photonic energy with no loss of mass to the atom provided that the oscillations are maintained within the optical range of frequencies. It is for this reason that quanta of photonic energy are said to have no mass and where there is no mass to be affected by a change in motion, therefore we can see the light from stars many millions of light years away, without any apparent violation of the laws of motion or of the laws of conservation of mass and energy. This in effect means that the production of photonic energy in the visible optical range of frequencies does not affect the overall composition or mass of the atoms in the medium producing it.

This must be qualified by way of example in that long term storage of an object exposed to a constant source of light will result in mild erosion of the surface of the object compared to an identical object which has been stored for an equal length of time in total darkness. But this applies only to the surface atoms of the object, and not to the atoms that make up the overall composition of the object. This is the result of losses due to hysteresis. Similarly, a medium transmits laser light but a surface interrupting a laser beam may erode away very quickly depending on the intensity of the power source of the laser. In addition, the filament of a light bulb will eventually fail to produce light once it has eroded sufficiently so that it breaks and opens the electrical circuit.

In the medium through which light is propagated for the purpose of this discussion the distance between adjacent atoms is inconsequential to their tendency to affect one another, and thence to the actual rate at which they interact. Purists might take issue with this but it must be remembered that gravity wields a very slight influence over the symmetry of the atom and hence the characteristics of their oscillations and this probably has some barely measurable effect over the rate of atomic interaction. However, this is not relevant to our discussion.

When an atom in a medium oscillates it will cause adjacent atoms to oscillate as well because of like polar repulsion, since the outer orbitals of all stable atoms have like charges, and the effect is passed on until the energy producing the initial oscillations is stopped or all of the energy is absorbed by some intervening body. The intensity of the light produced by the oscillations is proportional to the amount of source energy producing the oscillations even though the frequencies produced thereby remain the same. The photonic quanti, or photons, have certain particle properties which can be demonstrated but it can be seen that the behaviour of light propagation is comparable to the wave action of water in that all adjacent components in the medium are affected, and experimentation will produce results in accordance with both particle and wave behaviour. The concept of constructive and destructive wave interference applies to the behaviour of light, as we shall see.

It should be noted here that individual photons do not actually exist as particles in the same sense that some nuclear particles exist, and this is one essential premise of the quantum theory of physics. Those who believe that discrete photons travel across the universe unimpeded the same way that neutrino particles do have trouble explaining how these photons slow down through a denser medium resulting in their refraction regardless of the presence of a source of gravity. After all, by their reckoning photons should then travel in a straight line and since they have no mass therefore should not be affected by gravity but simple observation points to a wave like behaviour. As a matter of fact the photons that allow us to see exist for a very brief instant only and the actual distance they encounter in their lifetime is measured in angstroms before they are reabsorbed.

The inability of a photon to transfer momentum because it does not have mass in no way contradicts the behaviour of a light sail since it is not light hitting the sail that gives it forward momentum but the oscillations of its surface atoms that are transferring momentum to the structure of the sail. This is supported by the fact that a black surface provides more forward momentum than a white or reflective surface. This is best demonstrated by a simple scientific toy consisting of a set of four vanes inside the vacuum of a small transparent plastic ball standing on a pedestal. When exposed to sunlight, the vanes always turn in the same direction, one side is pitch black, the other reflective. The black surfaces of the vanes invariably turn away from the observer. Black surfaces are said to absorb light but the energies that would be converted to photonic energy are instead providing momentum. If the momentum of the light sail were actually caused by light photons striking the surface then an absorbing surface would not provide nearly the momentum that a reflecting surface would but that is not the case. This can best be understood by picturing a target range consisting of two targets of identical mass but different surface properties. The first target would be a thick hard metallic plate and the other a thick plate of soft clay. When two identical guns fire identical rounds of ammunition directly at the two targets it is not hard to picture the metal sheet moving away much faster than the clay sheet. Solar sails do not move forward by way of photons striking their surface to provide momentum.

I will apply this explanation of the nature of light propagation to how we see. Our vision is the result of the oscillations of the atoms in the receiving surface of the retina. From here, the cones and rods reduce their resolution by separating sufficiently recognizable details by converting the characteristic properties of the photonic energies modulated in those oscillations in accordance with the properties of the surfacesof those objects that we see into minute electrical discharges which are received by the optic nerve. Photons do not strike our retinal receptors after bouncing off the objects that we see. It is left to our brain, most specifically the occipital cortex, to directly interpret the information that it receives via the optic nerve. We rarely look at light sources directly because the oscillations of the atoms of the medium in the direct line of sight to the source are too intense and can damage the sensitive receptors of the retina. We are generally looking at what we refer to as reflected light, that is the light produced by the excitation of the surface atoms of an object interrupting the medium by a light source such as the sun or a ceiling light or a combination of the two, and which exhibit the characteristics that we see inherent in the elemental properties of the surface of the object that we are looking at and which return the corresponding frequencies inherent in those modulations corresponding to those characteristics through the same medium.

The explanation for the behaviour of the light that is emitted from a laser beam is only slightly more complex but it works the same way. It is said that laser light is monochromatic since the photons produced by the excitation of the laser source all have the same energy and the waves producing them have the same frequency therefore the resulting wave is said to be coherent. The source of the laser light establishes a powerful resonance of the atomic oscillations in the lasing substance, be it gas or crystal, which is transferred to the medium in the direction of propagation effectively overriding any ambient frequencies produced by waves which are in the way. Laser light does have some dispersion because of the oscillations of the atoms in the medium adjacent to the coherent stream of excitation which display the properties of the ambient light in the medium and which are not affected by the direct impulse of the lased path. This causes a destructive interference of both the lased light and the ambient light along the fringe of the beam. Naturally the amount of dispersion is proportional to the distance from the source of the beam since there is a compounding effect increasing with distance, and the beam does not appear to be perfectly coherent at the edge and more so the farther from the source. Direct incidental collision with the obstructing surface of an object or any non-propagating medium by a laser beam causes the resonance to be transferred to the surface atoms of the object whereby the energies generated can produce a great deal of heat through their continual reinforcement, possibly destroying the obstruction in the laser's path depending on the power of the laser source. Remember that there is a tremendous amount of energy in an atom.

The empirical results of all the experiments ever conducted throughout history to understand the nature of light propagation support the above explanation.

[michellemfry]

Sounds like a good recipe to me. Mix up little science fact with much science fiction. Examine the results. Decide for oneself. There is an old family recipe I like to remember. Two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Thirsty?

[dleviwing]

Originally Posted by michellemfry Sounds like a good recipe to me. Mix up little science fact with much science fiction. Examine the results. Decide for oneself. There is an old family recipe I like to remember. Two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Thirsty?

That's good Michelle; Now you can work with semiconductors by placing the wafers into a diffusion furnace. You have only stated the ingredients, not the recipe.
Do you know what temperature to cook the ingredients to cause that molecule to form?

[michellemfry]

I just enjoy a good blend of facts and creative writing. Without the facts, the secret ingredient to all writing would be lost. Truce? I haven't lost my way.

[baudrunner]

Therefore the wavefront of a beam of light travels about one hundred and thirteen billion kilometres in one second in the space found in between the galaxies.

that should read: "one trillion one hundred and thirty two billion". Even more awesome, but when you think about it, we're measuring on a colossal scale. There's plenty more kilometres where that came from.

sure:
I started life as a paper boy; never had summer holidays in high school - worked as a gardener 10 hours a day six days a week; did that full-time for awhile; not being the idle type I worked at just about everything you can think of requiring resourcefulness and able-bodiedness; attended colleges and graduated with honours from electronics and computer systems analyst programs; authored technical lab manual which was published by a major community college; developed computerized data base management systems for government and private sector contractors; worked as computer programming consultant for seven years in the same field; I developed a remote parts ordering system for Philips Semiconductors in Sunnyvale California which was probably obsolete as soon as it was implemented with internet being right around the corner but they now own the Intel hex file formatting routine I wrote for them as part of the package which was more than worth the investment. I can do things nobody else can do. You?

[michellemfry]

Me, I'm happy in the hospital laboratory. Give me some blood, serum, urine, whatever and I'm a happy camper. The closest I come to electronics is instrumentation, and I'm so lousy at troubleshooting. If not for those 800 numbers and the reboot, I would be screwed. So I depend on guys like you two. We have more in common than you know.

[baudrunner]

Thank you. It seems that every once in awhile you approve of something.

In my opinion mathematics is a lot like religion. Most people are comfortable in closing the book on the inexplicable and their inability to reconcile the meaning of life ie. where did it all come from , how did it come about, why did it happen, what's it all about etc. by pointing to God. There is comfort in closure.

Mathematics was used by Einstein to explain a "truth" behind a non-truth in his invention of the cosmological constant to explain why gravity didn't pull everything together in his static Universe. Just because it is possible to diferentiate a cube root doesn't make it a very realistic or practical exercise. I know someone who can prove that time travel into the past is possible because he can show you the math. The concept of matter waves to define dimensions at the atomic level should not be carried into the macro scale but yet I recall learning to do just that in our high school physics classes.

The ability to identify practical and realistic science is the hallmark of a true scientist.

[baudrunner]

The Singularity

In my previous post I postulated that light is produced by the oscillations of stable atomic structures which emit and reabsorb photonic energy on a continuing basis so long as the energy source producing those oscillations is maintained. The energy source could be solar radiation or a light bulb filament or the ionizing gas in a fluorescent or neon tube or any other source producing light. Light is optical frequency electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths from approximately 1,000 to 10,000 Angstroms.

X-rays are high frequency electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths from approximately 0.01 to 100 Angstroms. The production of x-rays results from a violent process. In medical x-ray technology a tungsten target is bombarded with a high velocity stream of electrons. This in effect disrupts the electron orbitals to the degree that the atom no longer exhibits the stable configuration that permits the cycle of photonic energy emission and absorption but instead releases the excitation characteristics of the innermost orbital and the nucleus. Since the wavelengths of those oscillations are much smaller than those of optical frequencies they are able to penetrate the outer orbitals of the stable atoms in the transmitting medium and transfer their frequency characteristics to those atoms' interiors which through atomic interaction continue to pass on these characteristics until they are resisted by the heavier atoms of metals such as calcium or until the excitation source is turned off. X-ray radiation can stimulate excitation in the lighter elements which make up organic compounds so they are said to pass through body tissue, unlike excitation at optical wavelengths.

The conventional notion that even light cannot escape the intense gravity of a black hole is misleading because the actual reason that black holes do not emit light is that no stable atomic structures exist in or around a black hole. The presence of atoms which have their electron orbitals disrupted or torn apart makes possible the ready production of x-rays which are found there.

In order to postulate a theory of just what exactly a black hole is, we can draw inference from the existence of x-rays. They definitely prove that matter exists within a black hole. The conclusion we can draw from that fact is that they must be ultra-dense compacted bodies, or stars that were too large and massive to maintain their presence and which collapsed in on themselves by their own gravity. This provides a satisfactory explanation for their existence, after all, we know something is there because they are a source of x-rays and intense gravity.

What then is meant by the term 'singularity'? We can offer a possible explanation.

We refer to the Smolin limit of the volumetric occupation of space. According to noted contemporary physicist Lee Smolin, the smallest unit of space that can be occupied by a volume is 10^-43 of a cubic metre. Notwithstanding that there are possibly more of these in a cubic metre than there are atoms in the observable Universe, is it possible that a giant star that has collapsed to the size of a pinhead has encountered somewhere within it the Smolin limit of the volumetric occupation of space? After all, we are compacting already tiny particles which are in the order of fractions of an Angstrom in size by a factor equal to the compaction of a giant star to the size of a pinhead. Inasmuch that it has been established that space is as much a creation as the matter which occupies it, it is conceivable that if the Smolin limit has been encountered within this ultra-dense compacted body that space must needs redefine an entirely new boundary of origin around that point.

There's your singularity.