THREE CLASSIFICATIONS OF PHYSICS
We could say that there are three separate classifications of physics. The most familiar is "classical physics". This is the everyday physics of how the physical universe operates that is found in an ordinary physics textbook.
But there are also two other classifications of physics. These are commonly referred to as Relativity and Quantum Physics (or Quantum Mechanics). The reason that these two are separate classifications is that they are about mechanisms and realities that cannot be explained by ordinary physics. Relativity tends to involve large scales, on the astronomical level, with objects traveling at a significant portion of the speed of light. Quantum Physics, in contrast, involves small scales such as electrons in their orbitals in atoms. These two are also incompatible with each other.
What makes Relativity different is the speed of light. Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, published in 1905, explained how the speed of light is the only absolute constant, nothing can ever travel faster than it, and everything else is variable, or relative, hence the name "Relativity".
When an object travels at a significant portion of the speed of light, changes take place that cannot be explained by ordinary physics. Time slows down and the length of the object shortens. At the speed of light, time would stop and the object would have no length at all. But the speed of light itself never changes. It sounds strange but has been proven repeatedly, in many different ways. The GPS satellites, for example, have to take relativistic effects into account to work properly.
But when we come to Quantum Physics, it has it's own set of rules that are beyond explanation by ordinary physics, as well as being completely different from those of Relativity.
In Quantum Physics, the observer is very important. When we observe or measure a quantum interaction, the observation itself becomes a part of the interaction. The quantum interaction will turn out differently according to whether it is being observed, or not being observed. This is completely alien to both "classical" physics and to relativity.
Another important factor in Quantum Physics is uncertainty. For example, we can express probabilities of where an electron is likely to be found in it's orbital within an atom, but can never predict with certainty. This is also completely different from "classical" physics, as well as Relativity.
But in Quantum Physics, the speed of light that is all-important in Relativity is not even a factor at all. It has been shown that information moves absolutely instantaneously between two entangled photons, no matter how far apart they are.
Three concepts that are central to an understanding of Quantum Physics are wave function, wave-particle duality and, of course, uncertainty. Another concept is that of superposition, two quantum states can be combined to create a third state. "Entanglement" refers to sharing a quantum state, usually two photons.
The central experiment of Quantum Physics is the famous Two-Slit Experiment. It is similar in nature to a diffraction grating, that splits white light into it's component colors, but it involves the all-important observation. If a photon, a single particle of light, is passed through one of the two parallel slits but it is not observed, we can tell by the interference pattern that will be produced on a screen behind the two slits that a photon also passed through the other slit at the same time.
But if we observe or measure the experiment in any way, a photon will have passed through only one of the two slits and there will be no interference pattern on the screen. This shows how the observation is a vital part of Quantum Physics.
In "classical physics", or in Relativity, light or any electromagnetic radiation is a wave. But in Quantum Physics, there is the wave-particle duality where light has the properties of both waves and particles. The "particles" of light are referred to as photons.
The idea of quantum computing, by the way, is to make use of the greater information in quantum bits, referred to as "qubits". An ordinary computer bit must be either a 1 or a 0, for on and off, and this is how all data is stored. But a qubit, in a superposition of multiple quantum states, has many more possibilities and can thus hold much more information.
Quantum Physics, also called Quantum Mechanics, unlike Relativity or "classical" physics, has different ways to interpret a quantum interaction. These possible interpretations can be divided into two broad categories, the "collapse" or the "non-collapse" interpretations.
The most popular interpretation of quantum interactions seems to be the Copenhagen Interpretation. A quantum system will be in a superposition of all possible quantum states, referred to as eigenstates, at once. But when it is observed, it will "collapse" into only one eigenstate, or quantum state. The "collapse" may be due to observation or to other factors. This one state is the one that we will see or measure.
The leading "non-collapse" interpretation is the Many Worlds Interpretation, which used to be called the Everett Interpretation. In this interpretation of a quantum interaction, every possible outcome must exist, with each event acting as a branch. In this interpretation, it is decoherence that causes us to see only one outcome instead of all of them. It is not the same as a "collapse" of a wave function because all other outcomes must still exist somewhere. Coherence is where two quantum systems share a quantum state, decoherence is loss of coherence and a breaking into two quantum states.
Albert Einstein, the author of Relativity, was also involved with Quantum Physics. He actually won his Nobel prize for the photoelectric effect, which is quantum in nature, not for Relativity. It was Einstein who developed the concept of the photon, or single particle of light. But he was convinced of the absolute invariability of the speed of light and referred to the instantaneous transmission of information as "spooky action at a distance". Of the uncertainty principle that is central to quantum physics, he is reported to have said "God does not play dice".
The place that my cosmology theory takes in all of this is simple, and it makes Quantum Physics simple. Imagine a one-dimensional string in space, which is what an electron actually is. Now imagine a two-dimensional wave interacting with it from a perpendicular direction. That is all that we need to know.
Waves are actually two-dimensional. They seem to us to fill three-dimensional space because our eyes are so large in comparison with the wavelengths of light. We can tell this because, if light is interacting with electrons, a higher-frequency (shorter wavelength) light, which contains more energy, will push each electron with more force but will not push any more electrons than the lower-frequency light. If we apply a brighter light, but at the same wavelength, the light will push more electrons but will not push each one with any more force.
This shows that light consists of individual two-dimensional waves that do not completely fill three-dimensional space. A wave has to be of at least two dimensions. Light seems to get dimmer as we get further from it's source because we are receiving fewer of the waves, in accordance with the Inverse Square Law. But each individual wave that we receive is not actually dimmer.
In contrast with other matter, when we start dealing with electrons is when things start to "get quantum" in nature. Each electron in an orbital has a four-part quantum "address" and no two electrons in an atom can have the same quantum "address".
The Four Principal Quantum Numbers and energy levels of electrons in orbitals are expressed in integral numbers, or integers, showing that this is the most basic of energy levels. That is what "quanta" means, the most basic of quantities.
Ordinary nuclear physics, involving the nucleus of the atom, does not involve the rules of Quantum Physics, only the electrons do. The essential quantum interaction is a two-dimensional wave of light interacting with a one-dimensional electron which, in my theory, is a string with the wave interacting with it from a perpendicular direction. For us to measure or see anything, light must impart some of it's energy to matter. Since matter is made of atoms and electrons are on the outsides of atoms, this means interacting with electrons.
If a material has it's outer electrons only loosely attached to it's atoms, so that the energy in light can knock electrons out of their orbitals, the light will cause a chemical reaction or an electric current to flow. That means that we can see, or measure, or photograph light.
The simple basis of Quantum Physics is that when a two-dimensional wave interacts with the one-dimensional string of an electron, it must impart the energy of one of it's two dimensions to the electron. That is how we see or measure anything to do with light, and is known as the photoelectric effect. The other dimension must be left but, since the electron is a one-dimensional string, this one remaining dimension of the light will appear to us to be a particle, and that is what we refer to as a photon.
The "collapse" of a quantum wave function from all possible quantum states into only one, when it is observed or measured, that is the Copenhagen Interpretation and all other "collapse" interpretations, has a very simple explanation. The electrons in our eyes or measuring devices that the two-dimensional wave of light must interact with are really, according to my cosmology theory, one-dimensional strings in space, which we perceive as particles because our consciousness is moving along the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains and we see only a moment at a time, at right angles to the direction of our movement.
The energy of one dimension of the wave is absorbed by the electron, which is necessary for us to be able to measure of see it, and the other dimension remains. Since only one dimension of light cannot still be a wave, that is where photons come from, the one-dimensional remains of a two-dimensional wave which now resembles a particle like an electron in nature.
The many points on the wave represent all possible states of the information carried by the wave and, depending on the point on the wave that contacts the electron, always at a right angle, the wave function appears to "collapse" into only one state, which is defined by the point on the wave that contacts the electron.
Imagine a two-dimensional circle being reduced to a one-dimensional line, but the state of the "collapse" to one dimension would depend on which of the infinity of diameters on the circle we took away to leave only a line perpendicular to that remaining as the one-dimensional line.
This is all that a "wave function collapse" amounts to, our vision or observation by interaction with a one-dimensional electron, taking away one dimension of the energy of the wave so that it "collapses" into a one-dimensional photon. All possible eignestates (quantum states) are every point of the wave before the collapse. The one remaining after the collapse is a line of light, a photon, that was perpendicular to the point on the wave that encountered the electron.
That is why the observer is so important in Quantum Physics, the observation which is usually the wave function encountering an electron string that is perpendicular to it and absorbs one of it's two dimensions. A photon resembles an electron in form because both are one-dimensional strings, except that the photon has no electric charge.
THE MANY WORLDS INTERPRETATION
Aside from the "collapse" interpretations of Quantum Physics", of which the Copenhagen Interpretation is the most popular, there is also the "non-collapse", of which the Many Worlds Interpretation is the most popular.
The Many Worlds Interpretation, as the name implies, states that, when a wave function is observed, it does not collapse because the other possible states still must exist somewhere. Rather than a "collapse", it is decoherence that causes one state to become separated from the others. Decoherence is defined as the loss of unity of a quantum state, so that it splits in two. Entangled photons, as we saw above, share a quantum state so that information is instantaneously passed from one to another. But that can be lost due to environmental factors.
But isn't "collapse" and decoherence really the same thing, the absorption of one dimension of a two-dimensional wave function by an electron that it encounters? According to our observation, the wave seems to "collapse" into a one-dimensional photon. But we could also say that there was a decoherence of the two dimensions of the wave, so that they were separated by the electron.
The Many Worlds Interpretation considers each event as a "branch". The quantum system seems to go in one direction, but the other directions that it could have gone in must still exist somewhere, maybe in another universe. There is not a "collapse", so that the other directions or quantum states no longer exist, but only a decoherence as our observation separates the one quantum state that we see from the others.
The Many Worlds Interpretation is something that we can spend hours pondering, as I am sure many others have. But I see it as us seeing the universe in our own terms and from our own perspective. The solution to this interpretation is just as simple as for the "collapse" interpretations, and that solution is to see that everything is really information.
Suppose that we throw a ball, and it bounces off a wall. But the ball could have kept on going if the wall hadn't been there. That means that there must be another universe where the ball keeps going, and doesn't bounce off the wall.
But we can easily measure the acceleration of the ball to determine it's course if the wall hadn't been there. That information is there whether the ball bounces off the wall or not. And the ball itself is just information. According to my cosmology theory, everything is composed of infinitesimal electric charges with space being a multi-dimensional checkerboard of alternating charges and matter being any concentration of these charges.
So it really isn't necessary to have a multitude of universes, with a ball in each, going through every single course of events that it possibly could have. If everything is really just information, then all we need to know is the original acceleration of the ball and the information of all possible courses of events that the ball could have taken are still there, all within our one universe. We see ourselves made of matter so we presume that there must be a ball made of matter like us in each possible universe but matter, like space, is just information.
The Many Worlds Interpretation is similar in nature to the pattern of information that I call "The One And The Many". The one is what is, the many are what possibly could have been but weren't. Addresses are an ideal example. Something is defined by what it is not.
THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE
What about the "Uncertainty Principle" in Quantum Physics? That is simple too. Consider radio triangulation. If we receive, with a directional antenna, only a momentary signal from a radio source, we can tell what direction the source is in but cannot tell how far away it is or whether it is moving. For that, we would need more than one measurement. In time, to see if the source is moving, and from another location, to determine how far away the source was.
This is why we have two eyes, to be able to estimate how far away things are.
In the same way, since the electrons in our measuring devices can absorb only one dimension of a two-dimensional wave we can, for example, predict where a given electron might be found in an orbital, but can never say with absolute certainty because all we have is an instantaneous one-dimensional measurement.
HIDDEN VARIABLE INTERPRETATIONS
Some other interpretations of Quantum Physics can be described as "hidden variable" interpretations. This means that we can never tell for sure what is happening in a quantum interaction because we are not capable of seeing all of the variables. My theory accommodates that because what we perceive as time is actually a fourth dimension of space that we cannot access at will because the particles of our bodies are actually one-dimensional strings that are aligned primarily in this dimension. The other three we can move in at will.
The reason that two photons can remain entangled, after a single photon is split in two by passing it through a crystal, is that the crystal adds it's spatial dimensions to it so that a one-dimensional photon takes on a "V" forms with the point of the "V" being the place where it was split by the crystal and the two points of the "V" representing the two entangled photons, between which information passes instantaneously. But the point of the "V" is in the past dimension of the dimension of space that we perceive as time from the points of the "V".
THE GREAT SIMPLICITY OF QUANTUM PHYSICS
Can you see how simple Quantum Physics really is? In my cosmology theory, it is fully explained as being even simpler than Relativity.
All that we need to know is that when a two-dimensional wave encounters a one-dimensional electron, which is the only way we can see or measure the wave, it must necessarily absorb the energy of one dimension of the wave. The remaining dimension of the wave is what we refer to as a photon, which behaves as a one-dimensional particle. This is why light is said to have the nature of both a wave and a particle.
The wave function, representing a multitude of all quantum states, thus appears to "collapse" into only one such state when we observe it. There is always the uncertainty factor in quantum measurements because we are observing a two-dimensional wave function, light being how we receive information, in only one dimension.
Picture a one-dimensional line in space. That is an electron, but the motion of an electron in it's atomic orbital resembles a wave. The direction of the line is the dimension of four-dimensional space that we perceive as time.
Now picture a two-dimensional wave contacting the electron line at a perpendicular angle. One of the dimensions of the wave is the direction in which it is traveling and the other is perpendicular to it. Both of the dimensions of the wave are perpendicular to that of the electron. The electron absorbs the dimension of the wave that is the direction in which the wave is moving, the remaining dimension of the wave then exists as a one-dimensional photon that is perpendicular to the line of the electron.
In the four-dimensional space of my cosmology theory, that still leaves one dimension because, so far, we have the two dimensions of the wave and the one of the electron. But light waves are two-dimensional in three-dimensional space. That is why light waves are said to have a certain polarity in space, like the hands on a clock. A polarizing filter only allows light waves with a certain polarity through.
Remember that this cosmology theory does not make the universe more complicated. It takes what looks complicated, because we over-complicate it, and makes it simple. There is the principle in physics known as Occam's Razor. This well-established principle is that the simplest explanation for something usually turns out to be the best explanation.
This cosmology theory can get long, but that is only because it explains so much that is otherwise unexplained. The essence of this theory can be described in two paragraphs. Following is the brief abstract that I use for the cosmology theory.
"My cosmological theory has the universe as not-quite-parallel strings of matter aligned mostly in one direction in four-dimensional space, although there could be many more than these four dimensions. The direction in which these strings of matter are primarily aligned is the one that we perceive as time, along which our consciousnesses move at what we perceive as the speed of light. We can only see perpendicular to the bundles of strings of matter comprising our bodies and brains. The original two-dimensional sheet of space, amidst the multi-dimensional background space, disintegrated in one of it's two dimensions as one pair of it's opposite sides came into contact. Due to charge migration, to seek a lower energy state, one side was positive in charge and the other was negative. This brought about the matter-antimatter mutual annihilation that we perceive as the Big Bang. The energy in the disintegrating dimension, from the tension between adjacent opposite electric charges, was released. The remaining dimension then consisted of very long strings of infinitesimal cross-section, that we perceive as the particles of matter today. Some of the energy released by the disintegrating dimension went into "welding" the charges of the remaining dimension together as strings of matter. We perceive these strings as particles because our consciousnesses are moving along the bundles of strings composing our bodies and brains, at what we perceive as the speed of light, and we can only see at right angles to our strings.
So, the basics of my theory is a two-dimensional sheet of space, which formed amidst the multi-dimensional background space by the same kind of opposite charge induction, disintegrating in one of it's two dimensions as one pair of it's opposite sides came into contact to create the matter-antimatter explosive mutual annihilation that we perceive as the Big Bang, which began the universe, and which scattered the remaining one-dimensional strings of matter out across space to form the universe that we see today. The strings of matter from the original two-dimensional sheet were scattered across four dimensions of the background space".
Ever since developing this simple theory, I have been adding all of the cosmic mysteries that it neatly explains. These explanations are in the posting on this blog, "The Theory Of Stationary Space", which is the name of the theory, and in the earlier part of the theory on the cosmology blog, www.markmeekcosmology.blogspot.com .
In Relativity, the reason that the speed of light is so absolutely constant is that it is the speed at which our consciousness moves along the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains. We see Quantum Physics due to the nature of our vision, using one-dimensional electrons to interact with two-dimensional light wave forms.
All that we really need to know about the greatly over-complicated topic of Quantum Physics is that an electron is a one-dimensional string aligned in the dimension of space that we perceive as time. When a two-dimensional light wave encounters the electron from a perpendicular angle the electron will, under the right conditions, absorb one dimension of the two dimensions of the wave. The remaining dimension of the wave now has the nature of a particle like the electron, and is what we refer to as a photon.
The right conditions for the electron absorbing a dimension of the wave is described in section 10) of "The Theory Of Stationary Space" as "THE FINE STRUCTURE CONSTANT". This is why, when light encounters an electron, the electron will absorb it only one out of every 137 times.
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