The Rule Of Eight

The "Rule Of Eight" links electrons to planets and continents. You may be wondering what electrons, planets and, continents have in common. I have not added anything to it in a while but remember the theory, "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" January 2016.

That theory is about how the universe reuses information. There is only a limited amount of information in the universe so large-scale structures must be based on the same information as the more basic, lower-scale structures. This is simply because there is no information from anywhere else for the large-scale structures.

One of the most obvious examples of this reuse of information that I use is the resemblance between the orbits of astronomical bodies and the orbitals of the electrons in the atoms of which these astronomical bodies are composed. There is no new information from anywhere when astronomical bodies, like planets and stars, form from atoms, so the same information that is in the structures of the atoms must be reused.

The orbits of moons around planets, and of planets around stars, and of stars around the center of the galaxy, very much resembles the orbitals of electrons in atoms. It also applies to the mutual orbits of stars in multiple star systems. Planets and stars also tend to rotate, just as electrons have spin.

"The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" also works in other ways. There are two "Rules Of Common Atoms", one for the universe and one for our biology. Color does not really exist, it is just how our eyes and brains interpret different wavelengths of visible light. Could it be a coincidence that the number of atoms that are really common in our biology, about six, is the same as the number of separate colors that we see? 

Could it also be a coincidence that the number of really common atoms in the universe is the same as the number of different types of galaxies? The information for the number of colors that we see and the number of types of galaxies had to come from somewhere.

We saw another way that "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" works in the compound posting on this blog, "The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple" .

The present Solar System, the sun and planets, formed from the debris of a previous large star that exploded in a supernova. The debris fell back together by gravity. The ordinary fusion process in stars only goes as far as iron. This is why iron is so common in the inner Solar System, it is the most common element on earth by mass. What I found so interesting is that the distances of the planets from the sun can be traced to the factors that bring about the 56 nucleons in an iron atom. This is an ideal example of the reuse of information.

I actually consider "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" as no longer a separate theory. It is closely related to another theory on this blog, "The Lowest Information Point" and, as we saw in that theory, "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" has now been incorporated into it.

With that background, let's move on to another example to add to "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe".

Atoms can have multiple shells of electron orbitals. In ordinary atoms, that are not ions, the number of negatively-charged electrons in the orbitals matches the number of positively-charged protons in the nucleus, so that the atom has a net charge of zero.

But the maximum number of electrons that any atom can have in it's outermost shell is eight. It is this outermost electron shell that governs the chemical behavior of atoms. As a general rule, when atoms combine together to form molecules, the "Octet Rule" is followed that tries to get each atom in the molecule surrounded by eight electrons.

The arrangement of the Periodic Table of the Elements is based on the chemical behavior of an atom being governed by the number of electrons in it's outermost shell. That is why there are eight columns in the table. Elements in the same column have similar chemical behavior because they have the same number of electrons in their outermost shells.

That maximum of eight is information and, since everything is composed of atoms, we should, if my theory of "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" is correct, expect to see this number eight reflected in the large-scale universe somehow, since everything is composed of atoms.

Since the orbits of the planets bear so much resemblance to the orbitals of electrons in atoms, how much of a coincidence can it be that there are eight planets?

In ways that we may not yet understand, the Solar System "conspired" to prevent the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter from coalescing, by gravity, into a planet. This made sure that there would only be eight planets, matching the maximum number of outermost electrons in the atoms of which those planets are composed.

By the same token the earth's moon and Charon, the moon of Pluto, could possibly have been planets themselves but the "Rule Of Eight" went into effect, causing our moon and Charon to join planets so that there would only be eight planets.

This means that, with regard to other stars that we can see have solar systems, the "Rule Of Eight" means that there will always be a bias towards having eight planets in the solar system. This does not absolutely mean that there will always be eight planets, but it is the most likely number.

What about the number of continents on earth? As the earth rotates it's continents can be said to move around the center of the earth much like the electrons in orbitals moving around the nucleus of the atom. 

It has recently been established that the vast shallow area around New Zealand is actually a continent, although it is mostly underwater. This means that there are eight continents. It looks like the "Rule Of Eight" has applied again.

Can you see how this concept of "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe", which must be taking place because there is no information from anywhere else to form the large-scale structures, enables us to "see ahead" how the universe must operate, even to things that we haven't "discovered" yet?

I find this to be a very useful concept.