The Universal Stuff
Chapter 1
Why
Not being a scentist, by profession being an architect
with an interest as well as passion in designing building,why then
have I decided to write on a subject as distant in scope from architecture as is the field of physical subatomic particles?
In my early thirties, I was captivated by the study of physical science, particularly in the field dealing with atomic particles
which at the time were involved in the technical development of atomic energy.
Introduced to the subject by books written by, George Gamov, Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld, Isaac Asimov
and others, (books intended for the general public understanding and appreciation of physical science), I was entranced by
that great mysterious story describing a universe of which we are a part and of which we have at some time miraculously become
conscious. The fantastic story becomes more fascinating with every chapter advancing through the new discoveries of the nineteen
and twenty centuries. From Copernicus Galileo and Newton, at a time where science was a part of philosophy, a new understanding
of physics emerged that is known as the classical physics point of view.
Classical physics, through logical thinking, experimentation and mathematical reasoning developed in a solid
world that was sure in its path and certain of final results.
In
the following centuries the classical physics point of view evolved in order to answer the questions raised by scientists
that were acquiring a new understanding of the physical phenomena while developing their observations in different fields
of knowledge. Through those efforts new fresh scientific fields of inquiry were developed that were comprehending in their
studies new subjects, like the light waves theory, electromagnetism and the existence and the substance of ether. It was soon
apparent that the questions raised in these new fields could not be satisfactory answered by following the path laid by the
classical science point of view and in order to analyze the new scientific discoveries, an approach based on different assumptions
had become necessary.
At the beginning of the twentieth
century, in order to resolve the problems encountered in the study of the emission of light by a black body, Max Planck introduced
the quantum theory of light, that was successfully applied to explain that phenomenon and later on was used by Neil Bohr in
a way that became essential in the developments of the science of particle physics. In its interpretation of the phenomenon
of light emission the Planck theory was changing the classical understanding of the infinitely small by inserting discontinuity
in its substance and asking as a consequence for a universe constitutes exclusively by particles acting on each other in an
empty space.
The quantum mechanic's theories lead science
in a purely mathematical world, which cannot be visualized in a four dimensional space time relationship and therefore has
become incomprehensible to common sense observations. Questions can be raised that this theory was not able to explain convincingly
many of the phenomena observed notwithstanding the effort of countless mathematical minds. No common sense explanation can
be found on how certain particle can attract or repel each other at a distance in what is considered to be empty space or
how can the electromagnetic waves interpreted to be particles and waves at the same time. Many scientists including Albert
Einstein could not accept the conclusion that a world based on mathematical logic could become unacceptable when viewed through
mental rationalization.
Why would such an anachronism
occur? Is man so small so puny, his reasoning so primitive that he cannot be expected to make sense of his observations? So
far in our search for other intelligence in the universe, we have found none. In the solar system at least we are the only
known conjecturing entities, therefore here on this planet, the intelligent observations of our brain are the only possible
path. When we are looking for a mathematical understanding of the world surrounding us, we cannot completely abdicate on our
common sense, since it is the source of the rational thinking from which mathematics evolved as a tool.
All theories start from postulates, or propositions that seem to be evident,
but cannot be demonstrated. If something does not add up in a logical way in a proposed hypothesis, the reason must be that
an assumed postulate on which we based our reasoning, was not representing a true understanding of the facts.
In my view, something was incorrect in the original hypothesis assuming that
the substance of the atoms and later on of light is characterized by particles that are constituting exclusively and by themselves
the universal matter. In following this idea, I tried to design a new atomic model formulated on a different interpretation
of the substance of matter. A model that can be visualized again within a mechanical point of view and will allow us to see
the world of the infinitesimal, in a four dimensional classical way that we can intuitively accept. Possibly within this new
hypothesis regarding the substance of matter, we could also formulate an understandable unified field theory that so far has
escaped every effort of being resolved ether through quantum mechanics or the relativity theory.
With a new assumption regarding the substance of matter, the electromagnetic force, the strong force, the week force
as defined in quantum mechanics, can be unified with the gravity force in a comprehensive field theory within a new interpretation
of classical mechanics.
Chapter1
Why?
It was Albert Einstein that in order to solve this problem applied to the electron Plank's equations that were applied
at that time to describe light phenomena. The electron would not only radiate energy in quantum units. It would also absorb
light in packages of energy in exactly the same way, following the Planck laws governing the black body emission. The implication
of these findings was that, both light and electrons exhibited granular properties instead of the continuous process that
waves were bound to produce, or in other word's electrons as well as light had to be constituted by particles possessing energy
measured in quantum units. While the quantum theory was very successful in advancing our scientific knowledge and the concept
of light constituted by photons, was essential in the explanation of the black body radiation and the photoelectric effect,
these same assumptions were failing when applied to other light phenomena like light interference or diffraction. We were
left then with two contradictory theories of light in which, one theory was used to explain certain phenomena and a second
one to explain others. How could photons be considered as particles in certain experiments and waves in others? Thought experiments
were introduced by Albert Einstein and mathematical considerations were applied to this matter in trying to reconcile the
two theories, ghost particles and coIIapsing probability waves were introduced to explain the world of the infinitesimal.
Quantum mechanics were later developed in a new atomic theory, which described matters now in a pure mathematical form and
unfortunately also in a way understood only by mathematician.
If we try to visualize the quantum world in a rational way, observing it through a logical analysis in a classical
mechanical point of view, we can only reach conclusions that seem to be unacceptable. Is it possible that, these difficulties
arise because the original assumption of a matter constituted by particles acting in a complete void, accepted for so long
and now so engraved in our mind, is not expressing the ultimate universal truth? Is it possible that by a revision of this
idea we could come to a new atomic model that could lead us back again to a more classical four dimensional understandings
of the universe?
Chapter 2
Of particles as the substance of matter
The intellectual searches for an elementary building block of matter, led mankind into an unending wondering path
since the early days of the Greek and Roman philosophers. The Greek and Roman philosophers thought that by consecutively subdividing
a material object, (irrespectively of the accuracy of the dividing tool used), we would necessarily arrive at a point where,
further subdivisions becoming impossible, the ultimate elementary particle of that substance would be isolated. The first
known advocate of that theory was Democritus of Abdera living in Miletus more than 600 years' B. C.
In Roman times, Democritus ideas were resurrected by the Epicurean philosophers
that called this infinitesimal particle the "atom" a Greek name meaning "indivisible." Five indivisible
particles were imagined to exist, of which one was representing the earth, one the water, another the air and still another
the fire; to a fifth particle named "ether" was assigned the properlies necessary to represent a cosmic substance
constituting the sky and the heavenly bodies. All the remaining existing substances were supposed to be a mixture of these
five particles, the physical diversities between them were explained by a difference in the proportions of the five particles
constituting them. The concept of an indivisible atomic particle was resurrected in later times, during the Renaissance when,
following the ideas expressed by Copernicus and Galileo a new physical science was born, that could be expressed in mathematical
terms.
Isaac Newton, who first experimented
with light, believed that its substance was constituted by a stream of particles speeding in a linear trajectory from the
source, every color in its refractive spectrum being represented by a somewhat different particle. The idea of light as conceived
by William Hugging was very different from Newton's, so that a debate between the two schools over the subject ensued and
went on for years.
Hugging imagined
light to be in the form of a wave transmitted by a medium in a phenomenon similar to the sound traveling through the air or
a wave through the water. While during Newton life, in part due to the scientist great reputation, light continued to be thought
of as a stream of particles, later on, after experiments showed that it possessed properties similar to waves, like (diffraction,
refraction and interference) Huggins ideas became generally accepted by the scientific world and light came to be understood
as a wave transmitted through a medium. This hypothetical medium was named the "ether," from the name of the particle
imagined by the Greeks philosophers to comprehend the cosmos.
The characteristics of light, could easily be explained as a wave phenomenon; every color in the spectrum when diffracted
by a crystal prism could be attributed to a particular wave length and the properties of diffusion and interference, could
easily be understood in the scope of a wave theory.
In 1801 Thomas Young devised his famous experiment. He let the light from a source fall on a screen, interposed
between them a board with two narrow closely adjacent slits. What appeared was surprising, instead of the expected mixing
of two cones of diffraction, stripes of light and shades appeared on the screen, a particular phenomenon that could only be
explained by interference, (when a wave of high intensity can be cancelIed by a corresponding low intensity
wave). The concept of light as a wave transmitted through the ether was therefore recognized at the time as the scientific
truth.
In the last century though, scientists found that in order
to explain within an ether wave hypothesis the phenomena of refraction diffraction and interference, it was necessary for
the wave to be of the transverse type, a fact that was asking for a transmitting medium with characteristics similar to iron.
The difficulty of conceiving an ether substance possessing the properties necessary to explain the electromagnetic physical
phenomena, (in particular, the radiation of the black body and the photoelectric effect), made it necessary to abandon the
concept of a matter constituted by particles sharing space with an ethereal substance possessing material properties. In the
following conflict of ideas the ether lost while the concept of infinitesimal particles remained, resurrecting Newton original
hypotheses.
In analyzing the emission of light waves created by energetic
influence, it was assumed that bodies absorbing a certain band of frequencies, would also, when heated, radiate in the same
band frequency. It was also experimentally determined that if different elements were vaporized through an influx of heat,
each would produce through the light of the generated flame a particular light spectrum composed of a wave length particular
to that element only. The same vapors interposed to a white light source were found to absorb from it the same bands in the
same wave length that they were capable of emitting when heated, this way creating the appearance of black bands in a spectrum
that again was specific to that element only. With this discovery each element in nature could then be identified by the characteristics
observed in its light spectrwn, each element emitting and absorbing light of a particular wave length.
In order to analyze the light spectrum emitted from a heated body, experiments were devised with a source that could
hypothetically absorb bands of light of every frequency and would therefore, when heated emit light in all the frequencies
in a complete spectrum; a source with those characteristics had to be a perfectly absorbing black body. Nothing perfect is
of possible achievement in this world but a device was used that was practicaIIy absorbing every light frequency. In examining
the light radiated by this "black body" devise, it was found that, when energy of heat was applied to the system,
the light wave frequency emitted depended not on the amount of heat, but on the degree of temperature achieved by the body,
a fact that could not be explained by a theory of light conceived as waves acting on a substance in a continuous process.
In other words the hypothesis considering light as waves transmitted through a medium could not explain this phenomenon and
couid no longer be sustained. In trying to solve this problem Max Plank developed the "Quantum" theory of light,
where light had again to be considered as constituted by particles. These particles called "Photons" are canying
a package of energy that is inversely proportional to the wavelength attributed to the colored light considered. The packages
of energy always appeared in multiples of a unit that was called the Plank constant. The energy of light could not than be
understood as a continuous wavelike process, but instead had to be conceived as acting on the electrons through energetic
packages that eventually got the name "Quanta.
With the theory of light proposed
by Newton and Hugging a greater understanding of the atomic substance- ensued at that time through the study of gases. In the beginning of the nineteenth century Amedeo
Avogadro enunciates a law, now bearing his name, stating that all gases at the same degree of temperature and pressure, contained
the same number of molecules. This hypothesis, demonstrated experimentally to be true was showing that gas molecules were
acting as if they were composed of particles hitting against a container with an energy proportional to their momentum, (or
according to the gas temperature.) On these observations the kinetic theory of gases "vas developed. A giant step in
science was also taken by Robert Boyle who through chemistry redefined matter as constituted by atoms and molecules and than
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, who reaffirmed the existence of the elements. The elements are
substances that cannot be subdivided into separate components and are made therefore of one particular type of atom, each
atom possessing its particular physical and chemical properties. Each element could be recognized through these properties
and catalogued according to its particular specific weight. Dmitri Ivanovlch Mendeleyev organized the elements in a table,
listing them in order of atomic weight, showing that their physical characteristics were following a pattern of a certain
period and therefore could be catalogued by following their particular physical properties. The hunt for the discovery of
all the existing elements was on and in the following years 92 of them were found each taking their established place according
to their characteristics on Mendeleyev Chart.
But it was the study of electricity and radioactivity that led us to an understanding of the atomic world. of today
The experiments of Faraday on the property of electrical currents and magnetism and the phenomena of radioactivity, investigated
by Pierre and Marie Curie led Joseph John Thomson to discover the electron, the first of the atomic particle discovered and
led him to propose the first atomic model. Thompson model. described the atom as constituted by a positive mass in which the
negative charged electrons were inserted, explaining this way its electrical neutrality. Through scientific experimentation
Ernest Rutherford demonstrated later the existence of an atom constituted by a very small positive nucleus surrounded at a
great distance by orbiting negative electrons. Later on it was found that the proposed Ruthertord model could not exist in
the simple form he described and it was up to Bohr to give us a modified version of it. Another phenomenon called the photoelectric
effect had come to the attention of scientists at the turn of the century, when it was discovered that certain metals would,
when exposed to light emit electrons, this way generating an electric current that was not in a proportional ratio with the intcnsity of the light but was instead a function of its frequency. It was found though that the voltage of the current obtained infinitesimal world is to be valid, it will have to
explain satisfactoriiy all the atomic and electromagnetic phenomena that science has experimentally observed. We are proposing
in this paper to follow a train of thought that would explore the matter in the light of a new hypothesis concerning the essence
of a universal substance.
It
was not our purpose in writing the preceding paragraphs to make a complete and detailed history of the scientific thinking
that introduced us to the concept of a universe of particles, but I thought necessarily to show how long the idea was
with us, and how it has become imbedded in our mind, evolving in being more than an assumed simple postulate, but as an undeniable
truth.
