Aad And The Concept Of Fields:

[Djames]

It is interesting to speculate on how, Maxwell approached the problem of the interaction of two charged particles separated by a distance:

"The question is that of the transmission of force. We see that two bodies at a distance from each other exert a mutual influence on each other's motion. Does this mutual action depend on the existence of some third thing, some medium of communication, occupying the space between the bodies, or do the bodies act on each other immediately, without the intervention of anything else ? "

Attempts to avoid the implication of action at a distance where interactions between particles take place at vast distances, have resulted in concepts like the aether, fields and the mediator (virtual particles) particles of the Standard Theory.

Yet consider Coulomb's equation for the force exerted between two charged particles:

 

[math]\boldsymbol{F}=k_e{|q_1q_2|\over r^2}[/math]

 

The implications of this equation is that the interaction between the two charges takes place instantaneously, with no time lag. Yet experiment has shown that this is not true and that the interaction takes place, not instantaneously, but at the speed of light. This is because Coulomb's equation is at best an approximation of what is really taking place. But what is really taking place? If nothing existed between the two charges then the interaction should be instantaneous. This in turn leads to the question of why the speed of light is constant. This is one of the major questions that remains unanswered in physics. Maxwell himself seemed to support an aether type of medium that filled every space in the Universe.

 

"The vast interplanetary and interstellar regions will no longer be regarded as waste places in the universe, which the Creator has not seen fit to fill with the symbols of the manifold order of His kingdom. We shall find them to be already full of this wonderful medium; so full, that no human power can remove it from the smallest portion of space, or produce the slightest flaw in its infinite continuity. It extends unbroken from star to star; and when a molecule of hydrogen vibrates in the dog-star, the medium receives the impulses of these vibrations; and after carrying them in its immense bosom for three years, delivers them in due course, regular order, and full tale into the spectroscope of Mr Huggins, at Tulse Hill."

 

If this were true, and such a medium did infact exist, it would explain why the speed of light is constant.

[Little Bang]

Amen. amen,and amen. I could not agree more. When we can explain the how of that field we well have all the answers.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Little Bang

[Djames]

Amen. amen,and amen. I could not agree more. When we can explain the how of that field we well have all the answers.

 

In the times in which Maxwell lived there were several theories put forward to account for the types of medium that 'carried' different types of energy. For instance it was thought that magnetic forces were carried by 'magnetic effluvia' and electric forces by something called 'electric atmospheres' and then there was the 'luminiferous aether' to carry light waves. In this respect the situation was not so different than it is now with Quantum Field theorists predicting as many as 100 (or more ) different fields, one for each type of particle. Maxwell himself thought that the 'field' , 'aether' or whatever, was electromagnetic in nature. Here is a quote:

 

"But if the luminiferous and the electro-magnetic media occupy the same place, and transmit disturbances with the same velocity, what reason have we to distinguish the one from the other? By considering them as the same, we avoid at least the reproach of filling space twice over with different kinds of aether."

 

In the post I had made on Gestalt Theory in the Alternative Theories forum at Hyography, I had put forward the theory that the 'aether' or 'medium' might consist of an infinite number of very minute 10 ^-7 m. particles (i.e., virtual photons) each possessing an extremely weak 10 ^-19 eV or less electromagnetic solenoidal field. Such a field would certainly account for all or most physical phenomenon that are known. Apart from Maxwell, Einstein, Lorentz and others were also proponents of such a field IF it could be found.

Edited September 17, 2012 by McQueen

[Erasmus00]

This doesn't work- IF you imagine the speed of light works like disturbances in a medium the speed of light would NOT be frame-independent. In a medium (like air) the speed of disturbances (like sound) is not constant. Thats why jets can catch up to their own sound waves- in their frame of references, disturbances move in the opposite direction at a slower speed relative to someone on the ground.

[Djames]

This doesn't work- IF you imagine the speed of light works like disturbances in a medium the speed of light would NOT be frame-independent. In a medium (like air) the speed of disturbances (like sound) is not constant. Thats why jets can catch up to their own sound waves- in their frame of references, disturbances move in the opposite direction at a slower speed relative to someone on the ground.

 

The easiest way in which I can explain the proposed medium, is that it is made up of 'virtual pohotons', this is in reality a new slant on an old theory because QED and QM have held for a long time that the medium is made up of 'virtual photons', ( i.e., they are the mediatiors of the electromagnetic force.) The only difference is that while the 'virtual photons' discussed by QM have a known life - time (less than 10 ^-15 secs) and can thus have arbitrary energies, the 'virtual photons' of the gestalt theory have known energies (i.e., less than 10^{-19] eV) and thus can have arbitrary life times (i.e., they can exist almost forever.) In the gestalt Theory, the 'virtual photons' of the aether are randomly oriented until a real photon is emitted by an electron, at which time the 'virtual photons' along the line of propagation of the real photon form a line whose ends rest on infinity and the energy of the real photon travels 'intact' along this line of aligned virtual photons.}

 

^{However, in order to understand how this 'aether' works, you have to think of the manner in which energy travels along a line of linked condensors. Condensors how been known to retain their energy for years. You remember those experiments that Benjamin Franklin did ? A line of condensors are connected together and the energy from the first condensor in the line travels along the linked condensors until it reaches the last condensor in line with its energy intact. The construction of the photon that I envisage, does in fact resemble a condensor, being composed of bands of electrical energy separated by a di-electric. This results in the formation of a solenoidal field around the photon, this construction, according to my thinking, explains: (a) how the photon keeps its energy intact over huge distances,(b ) how it can possess both wave and particle like properties ( c ) how it is a particle of no mass (d) how it travels at the speed of light in a vacuum, ( the answer being that this is the maximum speed at which light (OR EMR) can travel along the lines of linked 'virtual photons' the direction of travel makes no difference.) (f) How it can give up all of its energy at one time (g) how it is eletrically neutral and so on.}

 

 

^{Thus light does not work like disturbances in a medium, it travels through a medium composed of itself.}

Edited September 22, 2012 by McQueen