THE
MARVELOUS PHENOMENA OF LIGHT
CHAPTER 50
INDEX
TO OTHER PAGES
With
a thundering roar leaving all shock-waves far behind a long threaded rod pierces
through the air and comes to a crashing halt upon the back of your eye.
The roar of
course is an overstatement since God gave that long rod which we call a
wavelength of light, an absolute safe passage through all the myriad's of atoms
and molecules in its path. For all
its tremendous speed and its close proximity to the dense cores of the atoms, it
never once came in contact with any one of them to make a sound.
Of all the marvelous phenomena in nature there is none like "light" to captivate me for its beauty and perfection, and to delight me with ever-greater fascination. What really gives these circular formations their tremendous forward movement at a pace that is so constant under all conditions?
O if
I only knew, nor will I give up to gather that jewel to my cast of treasures.
On the other hand, perhaps I do know, but as in looking through a window
the far side of which appears covered with condensation impairing my vision.
I am tempted to wipe it clean, but it is on a side out of my reach.
In order to get some idea of what a light-wave is really like; a single length may be compared to a drill-bit some 21 ft long while only a 1/4-inch in diameter. This drill-bit, while it passes through our eye at some 240.000 km/sec, simultaneously rotates at over a billion revolutions per second.
Is it any wonder therefore that light is so well able to travel in
perfectly straight lines, for any drill that turns at such many revolutions per
second will have an inertia that is not readily pushed aside.
In the nature of things then, some 200 of these long drill-bits end
on end can fit into our eye.
Thus we come to
realize how minute the diameter of these waves are, not more
than the diameter of an atom. And
to compute these many revolutions per second into terms of speed, we find that
the angular momentum (rotation) travels at a speed of up to 50 kilometers per
second. This is from 4 to 6 times
as fast as a satellite around our globe, which in their velocity of 18.000 MPH,
comes to 8 km per second.
Ancient scientist however for one reason or another, good or bad may not wish to agree with me. They have given light for its wave nature a two-dimensional plane, a transverse mode of travel (figure 50-1)
In other words they
say that the best way to get from Los Angeles to New York is to zig-zag from
Houston to Toronto. As for our men
of war however, they have a better means, they put groves into the barrels of
their guns so that when the pellet flies out - it rotates while it moves forward
giving it more stability and greater range.
The ancient then worked out a system by which this bobbing wave may proceed through what for all practical purposes is a void. And within this void electrons were injected to bob the wave up and down (figure50-2) electron (E) C to D).
I however would
like to know how one can have a void while there is also matter, such as
electrons? (Someone obviously
had too much to drink) For again where there
are electrons there are atoms, and where there are atoms there is substance,
which then is not a void.
The ancient also maintained that light travels "independent" of physical nature. (Most stupid for how then is it refracted and reflected? If electrons (meaning physical nature) is required to bob the wave on its journey - how is even that independent of it?
Accordingly, for reasons only they can fathom, electrons were added -
spaced at such absolutely perfect distances as to make for the perfect green and
red images into our eyes.
I call this a
marvelous feat, a lot better than I could possibly perform, I would certainly
have to forego my sleep just to keep the myriad's and myriad's of electrons in
their proper places with all those jets and birds flying through the air to mess
up my work. For if any one of these
electrons shifts from its position by the smallest of fractions, your red might
turn green, and you be knocking at my door.
But for all that
it is worth, shall we ask as to "how" the ancient can say our light to
be independent of physical nature, while everything in nature inclusive every
single experiment has proven light to travel very much dependent upon our physical
nature? If thus, as they say, the
wave bobs up and down by electrons, it looks like the turtle and his shell get
along together.
Realistically we know that light travels in space, and that according to our brain surgeons space is void of matter. Yet at the same time according to these same brain surgeons it takes a lot of electrons to cause light to move. How therefore electrons as matter can at the same time be a void only these brain surgeons would know.
But that's enough
of this, the time has come to recruit Newton to straighten this thing out.
The ancient claim that the electron (E)
travels back and forth (oscillating) between points C
and D (Figure
50-2) to give the wave its sine formation as it passes to the right of
the paper.
I for me would not dare suggest this transverse scenario to the great man; my welcome would be short-lived. Sir Isaac Newton might respond by saying. "How dare you trespass my law of motion where for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction."
For so
indeed, what is there at points C and
D to stop the electron, and bounce it
back into the other direction? The
wave perhaps? But how is a mere
void, something nothing more than a coordinate, to stop a solid particle?
And then yet to realize how fast this electron is to move, and how often it must stop and start, - which for a blue wave could be a trillion times per second.
It is one thing for something to move at high speed, be it straight, or even in a circle, but to be accelerated, decelerated, and again accelerated and decelerated that often in a mere second with no walls, nor force to effect such upstarts and crash landings, is definitely too much to ask.
Moreover,
from
where shall we obtain these free electrons to effect the myriad's of waves?
My knowledge of science might be minute, but as nature demonstrates,
planets are always found around stars, never darting out in free space.
And should some of them have become homeless, stars are known for their
nobility to embrace all planets homeless and otherwise.
What I am saying
is; an electron serves no purpose, nor does it have a purpose, lest it is bound
within a system, the system of the atom. For
though one might quote me saying, "electrostatic attraction", but that
bird has its validity only when the thing is in orbit having its relevance to a
nucleus.
For again, when we take a good look at the atom (figure50-3) the core is as relevant to the electrons as the electrons are to the core, for that is the system.
The core, when pounded upon by our vocal cords, does not fly out of its system, it being held as were it by elastic tentacles, the relevance of its electrons. And likewise with the electrons - it takes the pounding of a nuclear bomb, or of an accelerator to dislodge them.
Sound has a very slow pace, that is set forth by a mere fractional back and forth movement of the nucleus at a rate that is not anywhere near the half trillion back and forth journey's that the ancient expect of the so called free electron. What immense speed in our vocal cords then do we need to see the light red, blue, or green?
If on the other hand we leave the electron where they are - at home within the atom, and we let its orbital velocity attain to the speed required for the angular (rotational) movement of the drill-bit (wave in tubular sine formation). We may then attain to the velocity to keep up with the wave - since for one thing, there is no stop and start scenario to confound us.
Moreover, I can sleep nights, not having to micro-set electrons, since nature all in its own keeps atoms and molecules in perfect proportions. The very weight of the air and gravity work well together to keep them at equal distances.
There is of course this exception, when the sun decides to heat the roadbed forcing a greater distance, for which reason the light, when it sees that, will step on the brakes and take a turn that in turn is observed by us as if water were on the road, the cool mirage that forever seems to recede from us.
If like the ancient space is such a void, let them first prove how light not only passes through it, but as experiment (Michelson, Morley) proved it rides so very dependent upon that so called void.
With light set in a momentum guided by electrons securely set in their systems, we shall have no problem seeing roses for red and violet for blue, as well as green for green. Or was that violet for violet?
