Adonis Diaries

I have a problem with Newton’s causal factor; (Nov. 13, 2009)

Let me refresh your memory of Newton’s explanation of the causal factor that moves planets in specific elliptical trajectories.  Newton’s related the force that attracts objects onto the ground by the field of acceleration (gravitation field) that it exerts on the mass of an object. Thus, objects are attracted to one another “at distance and simultaneously” by other objects; thus, this attractive force causes movements in foreseeable trajectories. Implicitly, Newton is saying that it the objects (masses or inertia) that are creating the acceleration or the field of gravity. 

If this is the theory then, where is the cause in this relation?  Newton is no fool; he knew that he didn’t find the cause but was explaining an observation.  He had two alternatives: either to venture into philosophical concepts of the source for gravity or get at the nitty-gritty business of formulating what is observed.  Newton could easily have taken the first route since he spent most of his life studying theological matters. Luckily for us, he opted for the other route.

      Newton then undertook to inventing mathematical tools such as differentiation and integration to explaining his conceptual model of how nature functions. Newton could then know, at a specific location of an object, where the object was at the previous infinitesimal time dT and predict where it will be dT later.  The new equation could explain the cause of the elliptical trajectories of planets as Kepler discovered empirically and as Galileo proved by experiments done on falling objects.

For two centuries, scientists applied the mechanical physics of Newton that explained most of the experimental observations such as heat kinetic, conservation of energy laws, the theory of gases, and the nature of the second principle in thermodynamic.   Even the scientists working on the electromagnetic fields started by inventing concepts based on Newton’s premises of continuum matters and of an absolute space and time.  Scientists even invented the notion of “ether” filling the void with physical characteristics that might explain phenomena not coinciding with Newton’s predictions.

Then, modern physics had to finally drop the abstract concept of simultaneous effects at a distance.  Modern physics adopted the concept that masses are not immutable entities, and that speed of light in the void exists but it has a speed limit. Newton’s laws are valid for movements of small speeds. Thus, partial differentials were employed to explaining the theory of fields. Thermal radiation, radioactivity, and spectrums observations have let to envision the theory of discrete packet of energy.

Newton was no fool.  He already suspected that his system was restrictive and had many deficiencies. First, Newton discovers experimentally that the observable geometric scales (distances of material points) and their course in time do not define completely the movements physically (the bucket experiment).  There must exist “something else” other than masses and distances to account for. He admits that space must possess physical characteristics of the same nature as masses for movements to have meaning in his equations. To be consistent with his approach of not introducing concepts that are not directly attached to observable objects ,Newton had to postulate the concept of absolute space and absolute time framework.

Second, Newton declares that his principle of the reciprocal action of gravity has no ambition for a definitive explanation but a rule deduced from experiment.

Third, Newton is aware that the perfect correspondence of weight and inertia does not offer any explanation.  None of these three logical objections can be used to discredit the theory. They were unsatisfied desires of a scientific mind to reach a unifying conception of nature’s phenomenon.  The causal and differential laws are still debatable and nobody dares reject them completely and for ever.

Let me suggest this experiment: we isolate an object in the void, in a chamber that denies access to outside electromagnetic and thermal effects, and we stabilize the object in a suspension sort of levitating. Now we approach other objects (natural or artificially created) in the same isolated condition as the previous one. What would happen?

Would the objects move at a certain distance? Would they be attracted? At what masses movement is generated? How many objects should be introduced before any kind of movement is generated? What network structure of the objects initiates movements? Would they start spinning on themselves before they oscillate as one mass (a couple) in clockwise and counterclockwise fashion around a fictitious axe? How long before any movement is witnessed? What would be the spinning speed if any; the speed of the One Mass; any acceleration before steady state movement?  I believe that the coefficient G will surface from the data gathered and might offer satisfactory answers to the cause of movements.  

The one difficult problem in this experiment is the kind of mechanisms to keeping the objects in suspension against gravity. These various mechanisms would play the role of manipulated variable.

            My hypothesis is that it is the movements of atoms, electrons, and all the moving particles within masses that are the cause that generates the various fields of energies that get objects in movement.  Gravity is just the integration of all these fields of energy (at the limit) into one comprehensive field called gravity. If measured accurately, G should be different at every point in space/time.  We have to determine the area that we are interested for the integral G at the limit of the area.  With man activities that are changing earth and climatic ecosystem then, I think G has changed dramatically in many locations and need to be measured accurately for potential catastrophic zones on earth.