The Mystery Of Spin, Part Two*

This is more of what we saw in Part One, last week, but explained in a different way. This has also been added to the compound posting on this blog about the cosmology theory, "The Theory Of Stationary Space".

One of the great mysteries that has perplexed so many science students involves the spin of particles. Some particles have a spin of 1, but other have a spin of 1 / 2. A spin of 1 / 2 means that the particle has to spin twice to get back to the original configuration. It is well-illustrated by cords attached to a rotating cube in each of it's three dimensions.

Because there are two possible configurations of the cables in each of the dimensions, left up and right down or vice-versa, and neither configuration is specified, it must alternate between the two configurations with each rotation. That means that the cube has to spin twice to get back to the original configuration. We express this as the cube having a spin of 1 / 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin-%C2%BD#/media/File:Spin_One-Half_(Slow).gif

But there are other particles that only have to spin once to get back to the original configuration.

This is neatly explained by the cosmology theory. The matter from the Big Bang was thrown across four dimensions of space. We can see three of the four, the other we perceive as time. This is because what we see as particles of matter, which have the spin of 1 / 2, are actually strings in four dimensional space. We see them as particles in three-dimensional space because our consciousness moves along the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains, at what we perceive as the speed of light, and we can only see in perpendicular directions one moment at a time.

This mystery of particle spin is all a simple matter of these four dimensions. In my cosmological theory, matter consists of one-dimensional strings of like electric charges, held together against the usual like-charge repulsion by energy. When this rotates what is happening is that the points on it's surface are moving in a perpendicular direction to the direction of alignment of the string. This means that the rotation, as we perceive it, of the one-dimensional string involves two dimensions.

But there are four dimensions of space. The rotation, or spin, of the string of matter involves only two of these dimensions. Two is half of four and that is why the string, as the particle as we perceive it, has a spin of 1 / 2. How much simpler could it be?

Everything that is spinning has a spin of 1 from it's own perspective. The only way that it could be seen differently is from the perspective of the surrounding space, and it would only be different if there were somehow a different number of dimensions involved, and there would only be a different number of dimensions involved if this cosmological theory of mine is correct.

Something cannot be seen as having a spin of 1 as seen in four dimensions if the spin only involves two dimensions. It will have to spin twice to get back to the original configuration. This is not true from it's own perspective but only from the perspective of the surrounding dimensions of space.

The particles, as we see them, that have the spin of 1 / 2 are the particles of matter, the leptons and hadrons that are collectively known as fermions. But there are other particles that have a spin of 1, these are known as bosons. The best-known boson is a photon, a "particle" of light.

All electromagnetic radiation is waves. Individual waves must have two dimensions because they have two components, wavelength (or frequency) and amplitude. But it is often said that light has a particle nature as well as a wave nature. What happens is that the only way we can receive light or other electromagnetic radiation is through it's interaction with electrons which, in my cosmological theory, are one-dimensional strings. This interaction means the electron, in our eyes or instruments, absorbing the energy of one of the two dimensions of the electron. This leaves the other dimension of the light wave as what we see as a one-dimensional particle, similar in form to a particle like an electron.

In this cosmological theory everything, both space and matter, is composed of near-infinitesimal negative and positive electric charges. Space is an alternating checkerboard of negative and positive in multiple dimensions, since the basic rules of the charges are that opposite charges attract while like charges repel. But a concentration of like charges can be held together by energy, and that is what strings of matter are. Energy is equivalent to mass, as pointed out by Einstein, and the energy holding the like charges of matter together is the familiar Mass-Energy Equivalence.

Electromagnetic waves do not have this mass because they are energy, not holding a concentration of like charges together like matter, but a disturbance in the alternating checkerboard pattern of negative and positive electric charges of empty space. The waves are not actually electromagnetic but they seem to be because they disturb the otherwise perfectly alternating pattern of electric charges in space. These charges comprising space usually balance out to zero but the underlying electromagnetism is exposed by the disturbing action of the wave.

But this means that while fundamental strings of matter are a concentration of a single electric charge, either positive or negative, the photons contain both electric charges although not in the perfectly alternating checkerboard pattern of empty space. The dimensions of space are composed of electric charges.

So this means that a one-dimensional string of matter is one charge moving in one perpendicular dimension as it spins. While a one-dimensional remnant of an electromagnetic wave is two charges moving in one perpendicular dimension as it spins. Again, each spin thus involves two dimensions.

The math is simple. Two dimensions x one electric charge = 2. Two dimensions x two electric charges = 4. We can multiply electric charges by dimensions because dimensions of space are themselves composed of electric charges.

There are four dimensions of space involved. For matter, 4 / 2 = 2. For photons, or other bosons, 4 / 4 = 1. So particles of matter seem to have to spin twice to get back to the original configuration while bosons only have to spin once.

Consider the example of a square. We are aware that the square is two-dimensional so that we can go from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner in one movement. But suppose that there was someone who could be aware of only one dimension. They could not cross the square diagonally as we did. They would have to go along one side of the square to the corner, and then along the perpendicular side of the square from there to get to where we are. We would require only one movement to cross the square, but they would require two.

That is what particles are like with regard to rotation. The dimensions within which the particles, actually strings in four dimensions, rotate are composed of electric charges. Bosons contain both electric charges while matter particles contain only one or the other. That is why rotating bosons only have to spin once to get back to the same original configuration while particles of matter have to spin twice.

Revolution And Rotation In Cosmology*

This has been added to the compound posting on this blog about the cosmology theory, "The Theory Of Stationary Space". If you are unfamiliar with this theory, you can read the "Brief Abstract" and maybe the Introduction on that compound posting in July 2017.

We can still see the original two-dimensional sheet of space from which matter, in my cosmological theory, was formed, as well as the two other dimensions, altogether four dimensions that the matter was scattered across by the Big Bang. Three of these four dimensions we see as space, and the other as time because what we perceive as particles of matter are actually one-dimensional strings.

Whenever matter comes together freely by gravity, such as our Solar System or galaxy, it tends to revolve around a central point in a two-dimensional plane. This two-dimensional plane, aside from outside forces, is constant and well-defined.

But to specify the location of a planet or star in space requires coordinates in three dimensions. What happens in our Solar System is that two of the three dimensions involved in the locations of the planets remain constant, but the third does not. The two dimensions that remain constant are the two of the revolutionary plane around the sun. The one that does not is the location of the planet within that plane.

We could say that the two dimensions of the plane in which the planets revolve around the sun is specified, in that these two dimensions remain constant. But the planet is also in a third dimension of space, aside from the dimension of space that we perceive as time. This dimension, however, is not specified in that the planet does not remain in a fixed position in this dimension.

The planet is within this dimension, just as it is with the two of the revolutionary plane, but there is no specific designation as to where in that plane the planet is to be located. So what the planet does is it locates in all possible locations within that plane, since none are specified and it has an equal chance of being in any one location. Since the planet, seen in three dimensions, can only be in one location in the third dimension at once, it has to cycle through each possible location.

In other words, the planet revolves around the sun. It's position in two dimensions are specified, always remaining constant, but it's position in the third dimension is not. But there is also a fourth spatial dimension, the one that we perceive as time. The position where the planet is found is not constant in the third dimension, as it is with the first two, but the change in it's location in the third dimension is dictated by the fourth dimension.

So we can see that there are four dimensions, but that these four are divided into two sets of two with regard to the location of the planet. The two dimensions of the plane in which the planet revolves around the sun remain constant. The third dimension of the planet's location in space does not remain constant, which is why the planet revolves around the sun, but this third dimension does for a constant with the fourth dimension, which we perceive as time, in that the planet is at a given place in the third dimension at a given time.

The location of the planet in the first two dimensions, the revolutionary plane around the sun, is not affected by either the third or the fourth dimension, which is time. The third and fourth dimensions together form a constant of the planet's location but this is affected by the first two dimensions.

Thus we have two sets of two dimensions here, a Primary Pair and a Secondary Pair. The Primary Pair is the revolutionary plane of the planet around the sun. The Secondary Pair is the third dimension of the planet's location with time.

There is another way of looking at it. The Z-axis, the spatial dimension perpendicular to the plane of revolution around the sun remains constant. The time dimension also remains constant, the planet always exists somewhere in time. It is the other two, the two dimensions of the revolutionary plane around the sun in which the location of the planet is always changing but the two dimensions together form a constant with regard to the location of the planet.

But either way we have two sets of two dimensions, one primary and one secondary. This is information, and information has to come from somewhere.

What do you notice here with regard to the cosmological theory. Remember that matter formed from a two-dimensional sheet of space that formed within, but was not contiguous to, the multi-dimensional background space. One of the two dimensions of this sheet disintegrated in the matter-antimatter reaction that we perceive as the Big Bang when one end of the sheet came in contact with the other. The matter that is actually the one-dimensional strings which are the remaining one dimension of the sheet were scattered across four dimensions of the background space.

That means that there were two original dimensions, the two dimensions of the sheet of space, and two new dimensions of space that make up the four over which the matter of our universe is scattered, and we see this in how the universe operates today. It's simple.

After one dimension of the two-dimensional sheet disintegrated, in what we perceive as the Big Bang, there were one-dimensional strings, the remaining dimension of the sheet that is the matter of the universe, scattered over four dimensions of the background space. That is one dimension in four. What do you notice about how planets and stars rotate? One dimension is specified, the axis of rotation, but the other three are not. But the other three do form a constant together as one is the dimension that we perceive as time.

The Mystery Of Spin*

This has been added to the cosmology theory detailed in the compound posting on this blog, "The Theory Of Stationary Space". The cosmology theory has a neat explanation for the mystery of particle spin.

All particles comprising ordinary matter have spins of 1 / 2. Spin refers to the number of times that a particle must rotate to get back to the original configuration. This is the realm of quantum physics and cannot be explained by ordinary physics. A spin of 1 / 2 means that the particle must be rotated twice to get back to the original configuration.

Particles of ordinary matter consist of two families of particles, quarks and leptons. Electrons are leptons and the protons and neutrons of atomic nuclei are both composed of three quarks each. Compound particles like protons and neutrons, each composed of quarks, are known as baryons.

Ordinary matter that is composed of quarks, the protons and neutrons, are made of an odd number of quarks. An up quark has a charge of + 2 / 3. A down quark has a charge of - 1 / 3. Two up quarks and a down quark make up a proton with a net charge of + 1. Two down quarks and an up quark make up a neutron with a net charge of zero.

Leptons and baryons together, the components of ordinary matter, are known as fermions. All composite particles made up of quarks are called hadrons which, aside from baryons also include mesons, which is a pair of a quark and an antimatter quark. But mesons are not stable.

Besides fermions, with their spin of 1 / 2, there are other particles that have a spin of 1, known as integral spin because 1 is an integer. These particles only have to rotate once to get back to their original configuration. But these are not matter particles, they are known as bosons and carry forces. The best-known boson is a photon.

The major difference in properties between fermions and bosons is exclusivity. Fermions are exclusive while bosons are not. If a particle has to spin twice to get back to it's original configuration that means it is exclusive. If a particle has to spin only once to get back to it's original configuration that means it is not exclusive.

Exclusive means that the particles, or the matter of which they are composed, cannot occupy the same space at the same time. That is why ordinary matter particles have a spin of 1 / 2. Electrons in an atom follow what is known as the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Each electron has an "address" consisting of a four-part quantum number. No two electrons in the atom can have exactly the same quantum numbers.

Particles that are not exclusive, bosons such as photons, follow the set of rules called "Bose-Einstein Statistics". Particles that are exclusive, fermions such as electrons and protons and neutrons composed of quarks, follow the set of rules called "Fermi-Dirac Statistics".

The spin is the fourth of an electron's quantum numbers. There are two possible spin directions, up and down. Electrons ordinarily exist in pairs, with the same quantum numbers but with opposite spin. Not all electrons are paired. In some materials, the orbitals of the unpaired electrons can be lined up with a magnetic field. Materials with the orbitals of unpaired electrons lined up are known as magnets.

Spin can be best seen in the following moving illustration. Or you can see it at the Wikipedia article, "Spin-1/2"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin-%C2%BD#/media/File:Spin_One-Half_(Slow).gif

If we attach cables to each side of a rotating cube, so that the cables won't tangle, the cube must rotate twice to get back to the same configuration. That is because the cables have two possible configurations, and will alternate between the two with each rotation. We can refer to the two configurations of the attached cables as "clockwise" and "counterclockwise". We could also say that the cables alternate between an "S" and a "Reverse S".

But since the two possible configurations are equal, there must be an alternation between the two, which requires that there be two rotations to get back to the original configuration.

But notice that we need the attachment of these cables to demonstrate 1 / 2 spin. We could not tell the spin of a particle just by looking at it, if we could look at it. "Getting back to the original configuration" means the configuration of the space around a spinning particle.

But how can the empty space around the particle have a configuration, and how can the configuration be affected by the spin of the particle? Empty space seems to be just nothingness, without any kind of configuration.

But remember my cosmology theory, detailed in the compound posting on this blog "The Theory Of Stationary Space". Everything, both space and matter, is composed of a near-infinity of infinitesimal electric charges. Empty space is a perfectly alternating checkerboard pattern of negative and positive charges in multiple dimensions.

This is the most logical configuration because the basic rules are that opposite charges attract and like charges repel. But there is energy in the universe and like charges can be held together by energy, and this is what matter is. Energy can also cross space as a wave displacement of the alternating checkerboard pattern of negative and positive charges, and this is what electromagnetic waves are.

An electron, for example, is, in my cosmology theory, a concentration of negative charges held together by energy. There is the well-known mass-energy equivalence, a certain amount of mass being equivalent to a certain amount of energy. The equivalence of mass and energy is what Einstein's famous formula, E = MC squared is about, the inter-convertibility of mass and energy. This is why concentrations of like charges, such as the electron, have mass but empty space doesn't.

But if the electron, or any other matter particle, is composed of concentrated electric charge, and the space around it is composed of an alternating checkerboard pattern of the same charges, then shouldn't a change in the particle, such as it's spin, also have an effect on the arrangement of the electric charges in the space around it?

Imagine the electron in space. The electron is a concentration of negative charges, held together by energy against like-charge repulsion which is why the electron has mass. The space adjoining it is alternating negative and positive charges. The negatively-charged electron affects those charges in that it pulls the positive charges in space somewhat toward it, and pushes the negative charges in space somewhat away from it.

Now suppose the electron begins to spin, as it does. It's effect on the charges around it will be pulled along with the spin just like the cables attached to the spinning cube in the illustration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin-%C2%BD#/media/File:Spin_One-Half_(Slow).gif

There has to be two possible configurations of the space around it simply because there are two electric charges of which the space is composed, negative and positive. A line of electric charges in space that adjoin the electron might be negative-positive-negative-positive... or it might be positive-negative-positive-negative... Since the two arrangements are equal, the space around the spinning electron must alternate between the two.

That means that the electron must spin twice before the original configuration of electric charges is restored, and that is why we say that the electron, and all other matter particles composed of a concentration of electric charges, have a spin of 1 / 2.

This is what the two opposing spins, up and down, really means. One is negative-positive-negative... and the other is positive-negative-positive... There are only two possible spins because there are only two electric charges.

This makes sense but then how can there be other particles with a spin of 1?

The answer involves the exclusivity of a concentration of like electric charges that are held together by energy, such as electrons. If we bring two electrons close together, they will repel each other because like electric charges repel. That is what makes them exclusive, and no two electrons in the same atom can have the same four quantum numbers for the same reason.

The reason that matter doesn't just pass through other matter is electron repulsion. As the atoms of the two pieces of matter come in contact, the negative charges in the electrons of each repel each other. This is why you can stand on the floor without passing right into the floor, since the interior of an atom is by far mostly empty space.

Suppose that there was an electron of concentrated positive charges, instead of negative. What if we brought that together with the usual electron?

There actually is a positively-charged electron. It is called a positron. But it is the antimatter version of an electron. Antimatter is the same as ordinary matter except that the electric charges are reversed. If we brought the two together, both would vanish in a great burst of energy as the negative and positive charges composing each react and rearrange themselves back into the alternating negative and positive charges of empty space, and the energy that was holding the like charges of each together is released.

So if everything, space and matter, is composed of electric charges and if particles that are "exclusive" are composed of concentrated like charges, held together by the energy of the mass-energy equivalence, then the only remaining source of any other kind of particle is the electromagnetic waves that can carry energy across space. These waves are a displacement of the alternating negative and positive electric charges that make up space, but not a concentration of the charges in the same way as matter.

Such a wave would have to be two-dimensional because they have two specific components, wavelength and amplitude. Since we are composed of atoms, which have electrons in their orbitals, the only way that we can sense or see things must involve electrons. But, in my cosmology theory, electrons are one-dimensional strings in four-dimensional space that we perceive as particles because we can only see three of these dimensions, the other we perceive as time.

But if waves are two-dimensional, and the electrons by which we must receive the waves are one-dimensional, that means that there must be one dimension of the wave remaining after the electrons in our eyes or measuring equipment absorb the energy of one of the two dimensions of the wave, which is the only way that we can see or sense anything.

Since particles, such as electrons, are really one-dimensional strings, and since one dimension of a two-dimensional wave must remain after our electrons have absorbed the energy of the other dimension of the wave, that means there must be one-dimensional remnants of waves that would seem to us to be particles, such as photons. This explains why light is said to have both a wave and a particle nature.

However, unlike particles of matter such as electrons, these "particles" of electromagnetic waves are not concentrations of either negative or positive charge. They are a displacement of the usual checkerboard pattern of alternating charges but there is no reason for them to have more negative or more positive charge.

These are just mass-less and charge-less one-dimensional packets of energy. But that would mean that they would not have the same effect on the electric charges of the surrounding space, as the electron described above. This also means that they would not be exclusive, many of them could pass through the same space with minimal effect on one another. Without this effect, there would be no reason for them to have to spin twice to get back to the same configuration of surrounding electric charges.

This is why they have a spin of 1, and this mystery of spin is explained so neatly by the cosmology theory.

A Panorama Of Europe

Before moving on to other parts of the world, I would like to help British readers come to a decision about membership in the European Union. For everyone else, the older parts of European cities are always a visual treat. The emphasis is on the places that we have not yet visited in our weekly visits.

Notre Dame is now the world's cathedral. The following views of central Paris begin in Sainte Chapelle. This is on the same island as Notre Dame, the island in the Seine River where Paris began. The original royal palace is on this island, and Sainte Chapelle was the chapel of that palace. The French royal family later built a new palace nearby. When they built a third palace, Versailles, the second palace became the great art museum that is now the Louvre. The original palace, on the island and where Sainte Chapelle is located, included a section, known as the Conciergerie, that became a notorious prison during the French Revolution.

Just look at the awesome windows in Sainte Chapelle. Most are from the Thirteenth Century, although some have been replaced since.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >, After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@48.8553968,2.3451418,3a,75y,185.81h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNrGxPamhRvHd4ZLjsT7_qZattK8f5sonoXtUtp!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNrGxPamhRvHd4ZLjsT7_qZattK8f5sonoXtUtp%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya68.82887-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Europe as a world center of power began with Greece. Mighty Persia was succeeded by an upstart country far to the west. Greece quickly built a vast empire and there are people in India today who show evidence of being descended from the soldiers of Alexander the Great.

The rise of Greece probably wasn't as sudden as it is sometimes portrayed, Greeks had been studying and serving as mercenaries in other countries for centuries. Athens was probably eclipsed by Alexandria, the city that Alexander founded in Egypt, as the center of power in the Hellenistic era. But Athens is where it began and here is a look at it. I am certain that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was influenced by the setup of the Acropolis and also by the large limestone blocks of the pyramids in Egypt.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.9720032,23.7287787,3a,75y,255.51h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sKwzqt6PP93x11-miYX-MeQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DKwzqt6PP93x11-miYX-MeQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D251.8525%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The next center of power was Rome, which was further west. The most-visited site in the present city of Rome is St. Peter's Basilica, which is also supposed to be the largest church in the world and is the center of the Catholic Church. Technically, it is in the Vatican which is a separate country. The cylindrical fortress near St. Peter's Square is Castel Sant' Angelo. This is nearly two thousand years old and was originally the mausoleum of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. It was later connected to the Vatican by a special walkway where the pope could go if in danger. This basilica was built in the Seventeenth Century, replacing the previous one on the site, where Charlemagne was crowned. The following scenes begin inside St. Peter's Basilica.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9020941,12.4537224,3a,75y,142.49h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOkW4Lwod1YKZfhzengjfmOEDX0G3kKDQG2f4eK!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOkW4Lwod1YKZfhzengjfmOEDX0G3kKDQG2f4eK%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya263.26263-ro0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Nowhere was as attached to it's patron saint like Venice was to St. Mark. It even exceeded that of Ireland for St. Patrick. St. Mark, the apostle, founded the church in Egypt. His bones were brought to Venice and are today in Basilica San Marco, and the Republic of Venice was a great power for over a thousand years.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4344351,12.3393064,3a,75y,160.6h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNm32JQHRF_TEyK1GBd4fgBrlGGk2vdUsDKaZE3!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNm32JQHRF_TEyK1GBd4fgBrlGGk2vdUsDKaZE3%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya167.12173-ro0-fo100!7i7143!8i2240

The crown in the glass case, in the first of the following scenes, may be the most valuable single object in the world. It is the Crown of St. Stephen, or the Holy Crown of Hungary. St. Stephen was the first king of Hungary. The crown is close to a thousand years old.

The reason that this crown is so valuable is that, in Hungary, it is the crown that actually rules, not the king who wears the crown. Unlike in other monarchies, where the crown signifies the king or queen that rules, the king of Hungary is just one who is worthy to wear the Holy Crown, but the land is ruled by the crown itself.

The crown is in the Hungarian Parliament Building, in Budapest. If you wish, you can come back and look around this fantastic building by putting the mouse pointer on a spot on the floor up ahead. If you then click, your perspective will move to that point, so that you can "walk" around the building.

If you zoom in on the crown, in the glass case, you can see that it's cross is famously knocked to one side.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.5069348,19.0457264,2a,75y,270.56h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s3AZb5ZXNOxT54MqTDENgZA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D3AZb5ZXNOxT54MqTDENgZA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D270.82663%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Gdansk is Poland's major city on the Baltic Sea. It has been an important city since medieval times. The wooden structure on one of the buildings is a very old-style port crane. The shipyard of Gdansk is where the Solidarity movement began that ultimately succeeded in ending Communism in Poland. The following scenes are of the original part of the city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3494077,18.6566855,3a,75y,83.85h,110.35t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNeU-Mi2EfjYdamt2IjibVCO3apGG-0fsA_Ee6T!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNeU-Mi2EfjYdamt2IjibVCO3apGG-0fsA_Ee6T%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-17.593689-ya174.0441-ro0.62761486-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

In the far south of Poland, the city of Krakow was for a long time the capital of the country. Krakow is where Pope John Paul attended the Jagellonian University and was ordained as a priest. Wawel Cathedral is where he was ordained, and said his first mass. The area in the following views are in the older part of the city, around it's expansive Main Square.

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.0615237,19.9379278,3a,75y,80.74h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPmsv6mTQfWee2ZtOWwvFIAtkurhfnN4VIxyKQu!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPmsv6mTQfWee2ZtOWwvFIAtkurhfnN4VIxyKQu%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya71.7535-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Following is the medieval part of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. This includes the Royal Palace and the parliament building. Sweden was once a great power and it is generally forgotten today that the U.S. state of Delaware started as a Swedish colony.

https://www.google.com/maps/@59.3248064,18.0699243,3a,75y,83.04h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sblEhSOSzRNcU_WTItD6DuA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DblEhSOSzRNcU_WTItD6DuA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D76.55081%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Arles is the city in the south of France that is known for it's Roman ruins. More recently, it is where Vincent Van Gogh did so many of his paintings toward the end of his life.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6756932,4.6223604,3a,75y,111.49h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s25y6-9nD44Qv7oij9MF51A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D25y6-9nD44Qv7oij9MF51A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D118.55711%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Ghent is an early medieval Dutch city in the northern part of Belgium. The northern part of Belgium is known as Flanders and speaks Dutch. The southern part speaks French and is known as Wallonia. Belgium split from the Netherlands over religion, it wanted to remain Catholic. There is some magnificent old architecture in this city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0537972,3.7225504,3a,75y,113.1h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sTiL07m_oYlX0kMd1QegDXw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DTiL07m_oYlX0kMd1QegDXw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D124.157845%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, was the largest Christian church for a millennium. It was finally surpassed by the cathedral of Seville, in Spain. This city is considered as representing so much of the character of Spain. The southern part of Spain is called Andalusia because Spain was ruled by the Moslems for 700 years and was called Al-Andalus. After the Umayyad Caliphate was succeeded by the Abbasid Caliphate, which replaced the Umayyad capital of Damascus with newly-built Baghdad, the Umayyad Caliphate continued on in Spain. Catholics gradually regained control of Spain but the southern part was under Moslem control for the longest time. This is the old part of Seville.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3885728,-5.9954262,3a,75y,41.88h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sJnpBxCYZhiuKQjX_FI1Uqw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DJnpBxCYZhiuKQjX_FI1Uqw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D35.464283%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

In Cosmology, Everything Just Fell Right Into Place

There has been a lot of attention paid recently to the U.S. knowledge and trivia television game show, Jeopardy. But let's not forget that what is important is not just knowledge, but new knowledge. This means discovering or pointing out something that was not known before. It resembles playing Jeopardy, noticing something that you think might be new and then checking online to see if anyone had ever noticed it before, or if there is any reference to it. That is basically what I do with much of what is written on this blog.

Remember that all around you, every day, there are things that are relatively simple but that no one has ever pointed out before. Today, let me tell you the story of my cosmology theory, the one in the compound posting, "The Theory Of Stationary Space".

I developed an idea for a measurement tool, for building and construction, that could do things that no other measurement tool could. The concept for the tool, the use of the earth's magnetic field as a horizontal plumb in a hand-held tool, had not yet been patented. I made a prototype and every time I used it I noticed more that it could do that no other tool could easily do.

However, I did not want to start a company and the trouble with trying to get a company to develop it was that the tool was so simple that I couldn't describe how it worked without giving it away so that anyone could steal the idea. Finally I decided that it was taking up too much of my time and attention and set it aside, writing about it in the article on the Progress Blog, "A Very Useful Tool".

But after I put the tool aside, all of the lines and angles involved with it were still in my mind. One day, I was wondering about what time actually was. It suddenly flashed into my mind that there must be a dimension of space that we cannot see, but that we perceive as time, and that matter consists of strings in four dimensions of space, rather than the particles in three dimensions of space that we perceive.

After that, one unexplained mystery in physics after another just fell into place.

!) First and foremost was that basic question of what exactly is time? It is known that time is a dimension, as is space, the dimensions being referred to as "space-time". But I could find nothing with an answer, in terms of actual physics, of what time really is.

Of course, if there is another dimension of space that we cannot see, and matter that we see consisting of particles actually consists of one-dimensional strings in this four-dimensional space, then time can be explained as something that is within us. Our consciousness is only at any given point on the bundles of strings composing our bodies and brains for one moment. Time is the progression of our consciousness along the bundles of strings composing our bodies and brains. This means that time is something that only exists within us.

We can see that there has to be a dimension of space that we cannot see because we can detect the radiation left over from the Big Bang, which began the universe. But we cannot pinpoint the direction from which it is coming. The radiation seems to be coming at us equally from all directions in space, allowing for the movement of the earth through space. If we lived in three dimensions of space, we should be able to pinpoint the direction from which this radiation is coming at us, but we can't. That is because the matter comprising our universe is distributed over four dimensions of space.

2) Another basic question is about the speed of light. We can measure what it is by precision. But we can find no physical reason as to why the speed of light is what it is, instead of some other speed.

Of course, if our consciousness is moving along the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains, then it must move at some certain speed. Since we can find no other reason for what the speed of light is what it is, this shows that it, like time of which it is a function, is within us as the speed of our progression of consciousness.

The processes that give us our consciousness are very complex. The speed of light is extremely fast. That is because the two are related.

3) But if the speed of light is within us, the speed of our consciousness, along the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains in four-dimensional space, then that means that the velocities of other objects, which are also bundles of strings, is actually an angle in four-dimensional space. This makes sense, with the speed of light being a 90 degree angle, and appearing as the maximum possible speed because a 90 degree angle is the maximum possible angle. That is why the theory was called "The Theory of Stationary Space". But then what about Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, where the speed of light is absolutely invariable and everything else, such as mass and time, revolves around it.

Of course, it doesn't really revolve around the speed of light. It only appears to revolve around the speed of light. Because the speed of light is within us, this is how it appears to us. Einstein's Special Relativity becomes easy to explain by the simple trigonometry of a right triangle. When an object appears to be traveling very fast, close to the speed of light, it is at a large angle relative to our bundle of strings. Since the diagonal, or hypotenuse, of a right triangle must be longer than the base of the triangle, which represents our bundle of strings, it's mass appears to increase, becoming apparently infinite at a 90 degree angle, which we perceive as the speed of light.

Likewise with Relativity's "time dilation". If we were moving close to what we perceive as the speed of light, our consciousness would be moving along the bundle of strings comprising our bodies and brains as it always would, but since the high speed is really an angle, we would be traveling at a lower speed relative to the base of the right triangle. it is all a matter of simple trigonometric functions.

We can see that the effects of Special Relativity are only an illusion due to our moving consciousness by cosmic rays. These rays are actually particles, but were misnamed as rays before they were discovered to be particles of matter. Some cosmic rays are moving at near the speed of light which, according to Relativity, means that they should have near-infinite mass. But since gravity is proportional to mass, they should also have near-infinite gravity. Yet clearly, they don't. if one particle in cosmic rays had near-infinite gravity, then is should wrap the entire earth around itself, yet it doesn't. This shows that Special Relativity is really an illusion of the motion of our consciousness.

4) Then what about the force of a moving object? When an object is moving at twice the velocity, it is known to have four times the force. The Inverse Square Law applies to the energy of gravity or of electromagnetic radiation in multi-dimensional space. So why would it apply to an object moving in a one-dimensional line?

Of course, this is explained by simple trigonometry also and proves that there has to be another dimension of space that we cannot see because it behaves according to the Inverse Square Law that applies to multi-dimensional space, not to one-dimensional straight lines. We can see that the increase in length of a line at 2 degrees to a base line is four times that of the increase in length of a line at 1 degree to the base line. That is why an object moving at twice the velocity has four times the force, the objects are really strings and there is a dimension of space that we cannot see.

5) Another mystery is Einstein's very famous formula about the conversion of mass and energy, E = MC squared, with C representing the constant, or the speed of light. This means that the energy within mass, known as the Mass-Energy Equivalence, is equal to the mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. But why would a small amount of mass contain so much energy?

Of course, this actually reveals that the speed of light is a 90 degree angle in four-dimensional space. It also reveals what matter and the Mass-Energy Equivalence really is. The universe consists of two electric charges, negative and positive. Opposite charges attract and like charges repel. Matter is actually like charges, which would otherwise repel, being held together by energy. When this energy is released, the like charges repel one another and move away from each other by the most direct possible route.

If matter is actually strings aligned in four-dimensional space then that shortest possible route is at right angles to that alignment. That right angle, a 90 degree angle, is what we perceive as the speed of light. Since, at the same time, our consciousness is moving in a perpendicular direction at what we perceive as the speed of light that is why the speed of light is squared, or  multiplied by itself, in the formula.

Never before had this formula seemed so simple to understand.

6) But then if Special Relativity and the speed of light are just within us, then why do we have so much memory capacity? How can something as small as the human brain hold such an incredible volume of memory? It seems impossible.

Of course, if this theory is correct then the brain has an entire other dimension to it. When we remember things, we are going along the bundle of strings comprising our brain into the dimension of space that we perceive as the past. The brain otherwise could not possibly hold the volume of memories and knowledge that we have.

7) Another mystery is that of cryogenics, conditions at very low temperatures. We can take a tough and flexible sheet of rubber and, if we cool it to near absolute zero, it will shatter into pieces at the slightest impact. This cannot be explained by ordinary chemistry.

Of course, it's really simple. If matter is really strings in four-dimensional space then heat, which we see as the motion of the particles comprising matter, is really the changing angles of strings which must be wrapping around one another at the same time. If we cool the object to near absolute zero, the strings will then be straight lines, with practically no wrapping around each other. Since this is what holds the object together, this is why the sheet of rubber easily shatters.

8) Another profound mystery concerns Relativity and Quantum Physics. Both are well-established and can prove their findings with experiments. Both explain things that cannot be explained by ordinary physics. But the two disagree with each other over the speed of light. In Relativity, the speed of light is absolute and everything else revolves around it. In Quantum Physics, the speed of light is not even a factor at all and it can be shown that information moves instantly between two entangled photons no matter how far apart they are, without being limited by the speed of light. How can this possibly be?

Of course, it's simple, and it shows that there really is no finite speed of light. Both Relativity and Quantum Physics are illusions of our perspective on the universe. We have to remember that we see the universe as we do not only because of what it is but also because of what we are.

Relativity is an illusion of time really being the motion of our consciousness along the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains at what we perceive as the speed of light. Quantum Physics is an illusion of the fact that electromagnetic waves are two dimensional but the reception of them in our eyes and instruments is based on their interactions with electrons which are really one-dimensional strings. This absorbs one dimension of the wave but leaves the other as what seems to be a one-dimensional photon. Two photons can be entangled, if one is split by a crystal, only if they are linked to one another in the past time direction which, as this shows, must actually be a dimension of space.

9) Does this explain the Mass-Energy Equivalence, that a given amount of mass contains a certain amount of energy? Mass is something that manifests, and is affected by, gravity. What exactly is gravity?

Of course it does. The universe is electric charges. Like charges repel but can be held together by energy. This energy shows up as mass, which is attracted by and manifests gravity. If the two electric charges, negative and positive, are equal then the two rules of the electric charges, that opposite charges attract and like charges repel, must also be equal. If we overcome the repulsion between like charges with energy, that means that there must be a net attractive force between the masses, and that is what we refer to as gravity.

10) But then why are there both matter and antimatter, and why do they both disintegrate and release a tremendous amount of energy when they are brought in contact?

Of course, matter is like charges held together by energy. In atoms, the negatively-charged electrons orbit the positively-charged nucleus. But there is no reason that the charges in atoms could not be reversed, and that is what antimatter is, with positively-charged positrons. The energy that holds these like charges together as matter is the Mass-Energy Equivalence. Space then must be a multidimensional checkerboard of alternating negative and positive charges. Ordinary matter does not mutually disintegrate when brought together because all of it has negatively-charged electrons facing each other which mutually repel when in contact, known as electron repulsion. But when matter and antimatter is brought into contact, the charges in both rearrange themselves back into the alternating charges of empty space and the Mass-Energy Equivalence in both is released as a fantastic burst of energy.

11) So this explains space and matter, but then what are electromagnetic waves?

Of course, these waves are only produced by matter. Energy can never be created or destroyed but only changed in form. What energy basically does is to displace electric charges by overcoming the mutual repulsion between like charges. This first forms matter, but if that energy is released it goes into space but the overall displacement of electric charges must remain the same. Space is also electric charges and the displacement there gives us electromagnetic waves. Waves are two-dimensional but the strings of matter are only one-dimensional, this is why matter has mass but electromagnetic waves don't. Because the energy is concentrated into only one dimension when it is in matter. Also, since matter produces electromagnetic waves, the fact that waves move only in one-dimensional straight lines shows that matter is one-dimensional strings.

12) But then what is "Planck's Length", an almost infinitesimal distance, and why is it so important?

Of course, it's simple. The entire universe, matter and energy, is composed of nearly-infinitesimal electric charges, negative and positive, and Planck's Length is the size of one of these charges.

13) Why does so much of physics revolve around three-part formula, such as the electrical formula of E, I and, R, which stand for the relationship between voltage, current and, resistance, in volts, amperes and, ohms? Another common physics formula is F = MA, Force = Mass x Acceleration.

Of course, all matter in the universe consists of one-dimensional strings. These strings can be bent at angles that we perceive as velocity, or energy. The only two possible factors are how many strings there are, in a bundle that is bent, and the angle at which they are bent. This means that much of physics consists of formula such as A = BC or B = A / C. One ultimately stands for the number of strings, one for how much they are bent, and the other is the final result of the bending.

14) So much has been determined about what happened after the Big Bang, the great explosion that began the universe but, as with what time really is, there is nothing much about what actually caused the Big Bang. This, along with time, should be the most primal question of all.

Of course, this makes it really simple. The first rule of the universe is that the negative and positive electric charges must always balance out. The universe also always seeks the lowest energy state but that rule is secondary to the balancing of electric charges.

My theory can bring the universe back to the first electric charge, whether it was negative or positive. A single charge would create an electrical imbalance, and that cannot be allowed. The first charge would have to induce an opposite charge next to it, but on both sides. That would also result in an electrical imbalance and the two new charges would have to induce copies of the original charge on each side of them. Then those would have to induce opposite charges on each side of them, and so on, in multiple dimensions.

The simple fact that created this alternating checkerboard of opposite charges in multiple dimensions is that there has to be an electrical balance between negative and positive but there can never be such a balance with an odd number of charges. So the universe just kept growing and this is what formed the space of the universe.

But some discrepancy occurred, perhaps willed so by God, and a two-dimensional sheet of space began to form in the same way that was within, but not contiguous with, the multi-dimensional background space. The mismatch of the alternating checkerboard of opposite charges between these two blocks of space brought about charge migration in the two-dimensional space. Positive moved to one side and negative toward the other, because this created a lower energy state.

Because the two-dimensional sheet of space was not contiguous with, not coordinated with, the dimensions of the background space, it's negative and positive sides came into contact with regard to the background space. This created the matter-antimatter mutual annihilation, with the fantastic burst of energy, that we perceive as the Big Bang, the great explosion that began the universe.

One of the two dimensions of the two-dimensional sheet disintegrated, the one that had come into contact, and the other remained as the one-dimensional strings of matter that we see in the cosmology theory. This means that space is an alternating checkerboard pattern of negative and positive charges and matter is a concentration of like charges, held together against the usual electrical repulsion of like charges by energy.

The energy is what we see as the Mass-Energy Equivalence of matter that is released by putting the matter in contact with antimatter, so that the energy is released and the electric charges go back to the alternating checkerboard pattern of empty space. The energy in the matter originally came from the energy released when the other dimension of the two-dimensional sheet disintegrated, and also that the sheet was not contiguous with the background space. This is information and energy and information is really the same thing.

15) Finally, if the Big Bang can occur like that, as a result of a sheet of space forming whose electrical charges are not contiguous with the alternating checkerboard pattern of charges in the background space, then why can't it recur on a regular basis? If it happened once, it should be able to happen again.

Of course, it does recur. This is what causes the phenomenon known as Gamma Ray Bursts. About one per day occurs somewhere in the observable universe. This is a fantastic and mysterious release of energy. Gamma Ray Bursts are associated with supernova but are hundreds of times more powerful.

When a string of matter, such as an electron, is broken by extreme force it upsets the all-important electric charge balance and the universe begins reproducing electric charges as happened in the beginning of the universe. This forms a sheet of new charges that are not contiguous to the dimensions of the background space.

This imbalance causes pressure on the electric charges of the new sheet, since opposite charges attract and like charges repel, which causes charge migration to make one side of the new sheet more negative, and the other side more positive. Since the new sheet is not contiguous with the dimensions of the background space, the two sides ultimately meet. This cause a matter-antimatter mutual annihilation and a fantastic burst of energy is released just as with the Big Bang.

Remember that all around you, every day, there are things that no one has ever noticed.

Chernobyl And The Wormwood Prophecy*

There is a series on U.S. television about the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl. Just a reminder, as we have already seen in "The Aztec Prophecy" and "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy", that this relates to the Book of Revelation and reveals the meaning of a prophecy in that the name of Chernobyl means "Wormwood".

This is another amazing aspect of Bible prophecy that is already known, but not by a lot of people. Chapter 8, verses 10 and 11, of the Book of Revelation has a prophecy that must have mystified people for centuries.

"The third angel sounded his trumpet and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky onto a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became bitter, and many people died from drinking the bitter waters".

Why would a star, or a meteor that is referred to as a "falling star", be named for wormwood, which is a shrub?

If you go to the article titled "Chernobyl", on www.wikipedia.org , the answer becomes clear. Go to the "History" section of the article and, under that, go to the first subsection, which is "Name Origin". You will see that the name of Chernobyl means wormwood.

As you may remember, Chernobyl is where the nuclear meltdown took place in 1986 that spread nuclear radioactivity over a wide area. This is what Chernobyl is known for, and the first thing that anyone thinks of when they hear the name.

One of the primary rules for survivors of a nuclear disaster or attack is never to drink from open water that has been exposed to radioactivity. The falling star represents one or more nuclear missiles, and many people who survived the blast died from drinking water afterward. When the Chernobyl nuclear accident happened, it let us know what this prophecy meant.

How Information Works

I wonder if a good way to illustrate how my theory of information works, as described in the compound posting on this blog "The Theory Of Complexity", is just to use a few examples that everyone will be able to relate to.

There is information in everything. This theory is not the same thing as the cosmology theory, "The Theory Of Stationary Space", or the theory of how information flows through the universe, from the lowest to the highest levels, "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe". The primary points of this theory are as follows:

1) Energy and information are really the same thing because we cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it, and we cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it. Another way we see that energy and information is really the same thing is how we can make our lives physically easier, meaning less expenditure of energy, by way of technology, but only at the expense of making life more complex. We can never, on a large scale, make life both physically easier and also less complex. This shows that energy and information (complexity) is interchangeable, meaning that they must be different forms of the same thing.

2) The complexity of a number is equal to the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a fraction or ratio. Whole numbers are all equal in complexity because 48 and 2 are really 48 / 1 and 2 / 1, the denominators are both 1.

3) Surface area is information. A sphere has the lowest surface area per volume of any three-dimensional geometric form, this means that it is the lowest information state. It is also the lowest energy state, which is why planets and stars tend to form spheres. But this should not be surprising, because energy and information is really the same thing.

Here are ten examples, that will be familiar to just about everyone, which show how this theory of information works.

1) GEARS

Distance is information because it has the potential to hold information. If you define a line and then put a marker somewhere on that line, then that is information based on the pattern that I refer to as "The One And The Many". The longer the line is, the more potential places on that line the marker could have been placed. Since the position of the marker on the line is information, the longer the line the more information there is.

We can apply this concept of distance being information to a set of two interconnected gears. Suppose that we draw a line across both gears at the point where the two intersect. Then we begin turning a handle on one of the gears so that both gears turn. There is information in how long we have to turn the gears before they get back to the starting point, with the mark that was originally drawn across the two gears lining up again.

This arrangement of gears illustrates my concept of the complexity of a number, which is the same as the information within it, being equal to the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a fraction or ratio. The angular distance, which is information, that the gears have to turn before they get back to the original line-up depends on the value of the denominator in the ratio of the two gears, reduced to it's lowest form.

If the two gears are identical, with the same number of teeth, this will be the lowest information state because the two will pass the original line-up on every turn.

If one gear has twice as many teeth as the other then this will be the next lowest information state, with a ratio of 1 / 2. The larger gear will have to turn once and the smaller one twice to reach the original line-up.

If the two gears have a tooth ratio of 7 / 15, that will give us the 15th lowest information state, which we could just call a value of 15. The smaller gear will have to turn 15 times to reach the starting point again, while the larger one will have to turn 7 times.

But if we use a ratio of 9 / 15, that will be a lower information state due to divisibility. 9 and 15 can both be divided by 3 so that the ratio of the gears is really 3 / 5, for a value of 5.

2) THE CIRCLE

A circle, in two dimensions, or a sphere, in three dimensions, is defined as a polygon with an infinite number of sides. Since my definition of the complexity of a number is the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a fraction or a ratio. That would make it seem as if the circle was of infinite complexity, since it has an infinite number of sides.

But this is a reflection of the two-dimensional circle, compared with a one-dimensional line. If we wanted to get perfectly accurate, there would indeed be an infinite number of different diameters by which a line could cross a circle. This is reflected in the value of pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter.

Pi can indeed be taken to an infinite number of decimal places. Computers have calculated it into millions of digits. I can remember it to 3.1415927.

But if a circle has an infinite number of infinitesimal sides, how do we express that as a ratio, since my information theory defines the complexity of a number as the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a fraction or a ratio?

There is one simple way to express infinity, and it is as a ratio. Just have a denominator of zero and a whole number, 1 will do just fine, as the numerator. Infinity then is simply 1 / 0, since an infinite number of zeroes can fit into 1.

But since the complexity of a number is equal to the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a fraction or ratio, and infinity is expressed as 1 / 0, that means that infinity must have a complexity of zero.

Indeed it does, simply because it is a descriptive term that doesn't really mean anything. If someone asks how high numbers go, and we answer to infinity, that is not really giving a definitive answer.

But what that means is that a circle, once it has been defined as a circle, and it's diameter or circumference is not relevant, actually has zero complexity or zero information. The reason that a sphere is the default gravitational state of matter in the universe is that it is the lowest energy state of all geometric forms. Since energy and information is really the same thing, that must mean that it has the lowest information state.

Of all geometric forms the circle, in two dimensions, or the sphere, in three dimensions, does have the lowest surface area per are or volume. Surface area is information because it has the potential to hold information. If it holds no information then that information is simply zero.

Given that the circle or sphere exists, from that point a smooth sphere or a perfect circle can be said to have zero information because it does have the potential to hold information. Information and complexity are the same thing, complexity is the volume of information. This shows my concept that the complexity of a number is equivalent to the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a fraction or ratio. A circle is defined as a polygon with an infinite number of sides and infinity is defined as 1 / 0.

3) HOT AND COLD

The temperature of two objects in contact tends to even itself out, seeking one consistent value. If a hot object and a cold object are brought together, the hot object will become colder and the cold one hotter, until they reach the same temperature. In terms of energy, heat energy flows from the hot to the cold object until an equilibrium is reached.

Having the two objects at different temperatures is a higher information state than having them at one temperature. That is simply because two pieces of information contain more information than one piece. Since the universe seeks the lowest energy state, and we know that energy and information is really the same thing, heat energy will flow from the hotter to the colder object until they reach the same temperature.

Even though the overall energy state of the two objects remains the same presuming, of course, that the energy lost to the air by the hot object was exactly equal to the energy absorbed by the cold object from the air, the information state does not. One value is less than two so the universe seeks not only the lowest energy state, but also the even distribution of that energy.

4) EQUILIBRIUM

We know that the universe seeks the lowest energy state, because there is not enough energy to go around for all that could happen to happen. But if energy and information are really the same thing then it should also seek the lowest information state.

This is why the universe seeks to come to an equilibrium, because it is a lower information state than a disequilibrium. The complexity of a number is defined as the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a fraction or ratio. An equilibrium would be represented by a ratio of 1 / 1. A disequilibrium would be represented by a value of 1 / (something other than 1).

Thus the universe prefers an equilibrium because it is the lowest information state that can be reached. A star is such an equilibrium between the outward pressure of the energy released by nuclear fusion and the inward pull of gravity.

5) A SHARP KNIFE AND A DULL KNIFE

It takes less energy to cut something with a sharp knife than it does with a dull knife. But a sharp knife is a higher state of information than a dull knife. Remember my concept that the complexity of a number is not the value of a whole number but the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a fraction or ratio. A higher whole number does not have a higher complexity than a lower one simply because the denominator of any whole number is really 1. The number 45 is actually 45 / 1.

On a sharp knife, the edge of the blade may be only 1 / 500 the overall width of the blade. On a dull knife, the edge of the blade may be 1 / 100 the overall width of the blade. This means that a sharp knife actually holds more information than a dull knife because there is more possibilities of where the edge of the blade could possibly have been located.

When we cut something, the edge of the blade of the sharp knife likewise represents a higher ratio to the scale of the object or material being cut than the edge of the blade of the dull knife.

This higher ratio of the sharp knife is complexity, and thus information, because complexity is the volume of information. My information theory has energy and information really being the same thing. Since the sharp knife starts out with more information than the dull knife, and that energy and information is really the same thing, that is why it takes less energy to cut something with a sharp knife than it does with a dull knife.

6) COMMUNICATION

One thing that is special about humans, and other species that have the ability to communicate, is that, with energy and information really being the same thing, we can communicate the information in something with far less energy than that which is equal to the mass-energy equivalence and other energy within the object.

In the universe of inanimate matter, there is no such thing as communicating information. Everything that exists is information, but the only place that information is located is in the object itself. The information in a planet, for example, is equal to the energy in the planet, both the mass-energy equivalence of the planet, as well as any other inherent energy such as gravitational kinetic energy.

But humans can describe the planet, or any other object, with far less energy than what is in the object itself. This is done by such means as words, illustrations or, photographs.

Part of the reason that we can do this is that we can generalize and see patterns in the object that is the subject of the communication. We do not need to describe every atom in the object, only what material it is made of. All of the information about the object does not have to be conveyed, only that which is relevant and necessary.

The universe of inanimate matter has no ability to do any of this. Energy is really the same thing as information but the only source of that is the energy in the object itself. There is no way to separate the energy from the information in the object.

But humans are far more complex than the inanimate matter in the universe that they inhabit. Humans are made of the same kind of matter, but with far more information per energy than inanimate matter. This extra information exists in the extremely complex organization of matter in the human body and brain.

The result is similar in nature to the example of the sharp knife requiring less energy to make a cut than with the dull knife. Since humans contain far more information per energy than inanimate matter to begin with, we can describe the universe around us with a far higher rate of information per energy, that is a reflection of our own higher complexity.

The factor that makes the difference is how much more complex human beings are, relative to an equivalent mass of inanimate matter. Remembering that information and energy is really the same thing, it is not actually that humans need much less energy to communicate an equivalent amount of information then inanimate matter, it is just that the information, which is really the same thing as energy, is within us already.

Since a human being is so much more complex, containing more information, than an equivalent amount of inanimate matter, the human being is like a sharp knife while the inanimate matter is like a dull knife. Since we already contain more information, we have to expend less information to convey information to another human being than inanimate matter does.

But this can only be done by way of codes that we use, such as language or mathematics, which inanimate matter cannot use. With inanimate matter, the only information about something is the thing itself. Humans have to be able to use codes to convey information to each other, with far less energy than with inanimate matter, because of the higher complexity of humans. The missing energy, of which information is the same thing, is already present in humans, just as the higher information of the sharp knife is already present in the higher denominator of it's ratio.

It doesn't really take less energy for humans to convey information by language than by inanimate matter. It is just that energy is really the same thing as information and the higher level of information is already present in humans.

But if we use physical strength to move inanimate matter then we are not making use of this higher complexity and must "play by the same rules" as inanimate matter.

7) FUEL

Hydrocarbon fuels consist of long chains of molecules primarily hydrogen and carbon, hence the name. Each molecule is a system of atoms. What I mean by that is each atom in the molecule has an electrical relationship with each other atom. These interrelationships between atoms in the same molecule are information.

When hydrocarbon fuel undergoes combustion, the long molecules are broken apart by heat into many smaller molecules. Since the atoms in each molecule have an electrical relationship with one another that is information, that must mean that there is less information in the many small molecules that are the products of the combustion than there were in the original large molecules.

There are the same number of atoms in the product molecules after the combustion as there were in the original larger molecules, but fewer total electrical interrelationships between atoms in the same molecule.

Suppose that there is a molecule with 8 atoms, with each atom having an electrical interrelationship with every other atom in the molecule. This means a total of 56 interrelationships.

Now suppose that we split the molecule in half, so that we get two molecules with four atoms each. Even though we still have the same number of atoms as before we now have only 24 interrelationships, 12 in each molecule.

These interrelationships between atoms in a molecule are information. When a large molecule is split, the information cannot just be lost. Remember that information is really the same thing as energy, because we cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it and cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it.

So the information of the interrelationships between atoms in the molecule are released as energy, and that is why we burn fuels for energy.

8) STATES OF MATTER

Hydrocarbon fuels consist of polymers, which are large molecules composed of long chains of atoms. There is energy in these molecular bonds and that energy is released when the molecule is broken apart by heat.

But that brings us to a question. Water also consists of long chains of molecules. Each water molecule is individual, consisting of one hydrogen atom and two hydrogen atoms. But the way the hydrogen atoms bond to the much-larger oxygen atom leaves the water molecule with a polarity. This means that one side of the molecule is more negatively-charged and the other side more positively-charged.

The result is that many water molecules line up, negative to positive, in what is known as hydrogen bonding. The result of this is liquid water. Individual water molecules will form a gas, water vapor.

This is what causes weather. Water is actually lighter than air, by molecule. But when many water molecules join together by hydrogen bonding the result is liquid water which, at sea level, is 800 times as heavy as air. This makes it so that water evaporates as vapor but falls as rain after the molecules have bonded together on condensation nuclei in clouds.

These differences are known as states of matter. Ordinary matter has three possible states: solid, liquid and, gas. The difference is in heat. Molecules move around faster when there is more heat. That makes it more difficult for them to bond together by hydrogen bonding and the heat can break existing hydrogen bonds. if the temperature gets cold enough, cross-link bonding can form between atoms in adjacent lines of water molecules. That turns water into it's solid form, which is ice.

But why is there such a difference between the polymers of hydrocarbon fuels and the long lines of water molecules in liquid or solid form? Both require heat to break the bonds but the water molecules, unlike the fuels, do not release any energy when the bonds are broken. That is why we cannot use water for fuel.

The answer lies in how information works. Even though the water molecules held in a line by hydrogen bonding have an electrical interrelationship between them, there is no information because the molecules are identical. The water molecules are identical and repetitive so that the only information is that of their position.

Remember that my theory of how information works stipulates that repetition is not complexity, meaning that it is not information. The complexity of a number is the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a ratio or fraction. Since the water molecules are identical, no matter how many are in a line the denominator is always 1.

But that is not the case with the polymers of the hydrocarbons that are used for fuels. There is information because these are genuine molecules with an interrelationship between the electrons of adjacent atoms, which is not the case with the simple hydrogen bonding of water molecules.

Since energy and information is really the same thing, when the bonds between atoms in these hydrocarbon molecules is broken by the heat in an engine that information is released as energy.

9) DISTANCE

A simple way to see how distance is information is by surface area. We know that information and energy is really the same thing, because we cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it, and cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it.

We also know that a sphere is the default gravitational form of matter in the universe because it has the lowest energy state, and the universe always seeks the lowest energy state. With the lowest energy state, the sphere is also characterized as having the lowest surface area per volume of all geometric forms.

That means that surface area is equivalent to energy, or information. We add information to something by applying energy to it, and the only way to add information to a smooth sphere is to increase it's surface area. Since increased surface area means that the average distance between all points on that surface is greater, that must mean that since distance is related to surface area then distance is also information.

This makes sense because the distance between two points is information. Anything involving information is defined by what it is not, but potentially could have been. The further apart two points actually are, the more distances in between there are at which they could have been, but aren't.

But repetition is not complexity. Remember that the complexity of a number, meaning the information in it, is equal to the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a ratio or fraction. That means that distance across space, where there is no gravitational field, is repetitive.

That is why we have Newton's Law that an object in motion will remain in motion until stopped by an outside force. We only need to fire the engine of a spacecraft to get it moving toward it's target and it will keep going  in that direction after the engine is shut off. That is because the empty space across which it is moving is repetitive, equivalent to a fraction with a denominator of 1.

But if there is a gravitational field, or if the spacecraft runs into an asteroid, then that is information and the original energy applied to the spacecraft will no longer suffice to keep it moving in exactly the same direction.

This shows how dimensions are information. The initial thrust got the spacecraft moving, and it continued moving across empty space, but only in a straight line, which is one-dimensional. When we add a gravitational field, or another object, to the situation, we are adding information.  That information will affect the spacecraft, to change or stop it's course, unless further information, from an additional engine thrust which is energy and thus information, is added to it.

10) FALLING

A falling object is seeking a lower-energy state, which the universe always does. But energy and information is really the same thing so if the falling object is seeking a lower-energy state, we should also be able to see how it is seeking a lower-information state.

Remember the element of the information theory that the complexity of a number, which is the information in it, is not equal to the value of the number itself but to the value of the denominator when the number is expressed as a ratio or fraction. 24 is no more complex than 3 because 24 is really 24 / 1 and 3 is really 3 / 1.

Suppose that we have an object of a certain dimension. It doesn't matter if we use the entire object or a part of the object as it's dimension. Let's just describe the object's width or height as 1.

Now suppose that we place the object unsupported at a height twenty times it's width or height. The dimension of the object will be 1 / 20 it's altitude above the ground. Remembering that the complexity of a number is the value of the denominator when it is expressed as a ratio, and that the universe always seeks the lowest energy state which is the same as the lowest information state, the object and the earth seek to lower the 20 of the denominator to the lowest possible value.

The only way to do that is to lower the altitude of the object, in other words for the object to fall. When the height of the object as the numerator of the ratio and the altitude of the top of the object above the ground is 1 / 1 that is both the lowest achievable information state for a solid object, and it also means that the object is on the ground.

The Story Of China

By going over the history of China, we can see how it got to where it is today. After each section there are "Observations", so that we can see how history repeats itself. Credit to Wikipedia for dates and fact-checking.

PRE-IMPERIAL CHINA

The mythical beginning of China was the Xia Dynasty, founded about 2000 B.C. It is referred to in very early writings but direct evidence of it has not been found.

This was followed by the Shang (or Yin) Dynasty, founded about 1600 B.C. Their capital was Yinxu, at the present city of Anyang, but left in ruins after the Zhou, the following dynasty, victory over the Shang Dynasty. This capital was rediscovered in 1899, and is open to the public.

The Zhou Dynasty, established in 1046 B.C. by King Wu, was the longest-reigning dynasty in China's history.

The Spring and Autumn Period, within the Zhou Dynasty, is named for a work of literature called The Spring and Autumn Annals. The Zhou Dynasty was forced by the Qin, the following dynasty, to move their capital eastward to the city of Luoyang, which they founded. The first part of the Zhou Dynasty, with the capital near Xian, Xianyang, was known as the Western Zhou 1046-771 BC.

The Eastern Zhou Dynasty, with the capital at Luoyang, was a period of instability that saw hundreds of defacto states emerge but that were eventually consolidated into a seven principal states. These fought in what is known as the Warring States Period. It was during this time that the philosophy and religion of Confucianism and Taoism began, which are so important to China. The Warring States Period was the final part of the Zhou Dynasty.

The Spring and Autumn Period, nearly 300 years long, together with the Warring States Period comprise the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, after the capital had been moved to Luoyang. The Eastern Zhou Dynasty lasted 515 years, The Zhou Dynasty lasted 790 years altogether. The Spring and Autumn Period saw many nobles becoming increasingly independent of the dynasty's declining power. The breakup of one of the new states, Jin, is considered as beginning of Warring States Period.

Qin was the eventual winner of the Seven Warring States. It was to the west of China and became the following dynasty.

The Xia, Shang and, Zhou Dynasties could be called Pre-Imperial China. Imperial China followed this era.

OBSERVATIONS

Notice how the Zhou Dynasty moved eastward, after a defeat by the Qin. This is to be a recurring theme with later dynasties, starting in the west but later moving east after suffering a defeat. Most recently, this pattern was repeated by the Nationalists, or the Koumintang, leaving the mainland and moving east to Taiwan after the loss of the Civil War in 1949.

Notice also how the fragmentation in the latter part of the Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and then the Warring States Period repeated itself in the Twentieth Century as the "Warlord Era" after the revolution in 1911 that ended Imperial China and began the modern republic.

The philosophy of Chairman Mao very much resembles the governing principles of Confucius.

Much later, Japan also had a "Warring States Period" that was named for the Chinese era by that name.

IMPERIAL CHINA

Early Imperial China was the Qin, Han and, Jin Dynasties.
Middle Imperial China was the Sui, Tang and, Song Dynasties.
Late Imperial China was the Yuan, Ming and, Qing Dynasties.

EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA

The Qin Dynasty lasted only from 221-207 B.C. but had what it took in governing skills to unify China after the Warring States Period. It arose 35 years after the Zhou Dynasty had collapsed. Their capital of Xianyang is now within the city of Xian. The first confirmed emperor to rule all of China was Qin Shi Huang. He is the one who was buried with the famous Terra Cotta Army that was discovered at Xian.

The Han Dynasty was a golden age that was the peak of early Chinese civilization. It was founded by a peasant named Liu Bang and was led by the famous Emperor Wu. The philosophy of Confucius became a vital part of Chinese society during the Han Dynasty. The Silk Road began which led westward from the city of Xian, which was built near Xianyang. The majority ethnic group of China today are called Han Chinese.

The glory of the Han Dynasty was interrupted, at the time of Jesus, by Wang Mang. He ruled what is called the Xin Dynasty for 14 years, 9-23 A.D., before being overthrown in Xian and killed. This interregnum separated the Western Han Dynasty from the Eastern Han Dynasty. Other than this interruption, the Han Dynasty lasted from 202 B.C. to 220 A.D.

The Eastern Han Dynasty, like the Eastern Zhou Dynasty before them, had it's capital at Luoyang and is known for first making paper. It produced an all-around scientific genius named Zhang Heng. The breakup of the Han Dynasty began with the peasant Yellow Turban Rebellion. This formed the "Three Kingdoms" of Wei, Shu and, Wu.

The Jin Dynasty, lasting from about 265 to 420, reunited China but then saw fragmentation of the country and conquest of Xian and Luoyang by non-Han peoples. This resulted in the "Sixteen Kingdoms of Five Barbarians" and brought about the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which moved capital to Nanjing. This Jin Dynasty was actually the Early Jin Dynasty because there was also a Later Jin Dynasty.

This was followed by the "Northern and Southern Dynasties", where northern and southern China were ruled separately. This era lasted until the year 589. A great scientific genius of this time was Zu Chongzhi. But there was eventual assimilation of the non-Han peoples into the Han Chinese.

OBSERVATIONS

During China's Cultural Revolution, during the 1960s, the rural roots of China were emphasized. Those who had grown up in the modern cities had a lot to learn from the farms. Notice how this is a reflection of the Han Dynasty, which is considered as a great golden age, being started by a peasant named Liu Bang. The end of the Han Dynasty was actually also brought about by a peasant rebellion.

Notice again this pattern of a dynasty starting in the west but moving it's center eastward after some setback or interruption. This happened to both the Han and the Jin Dynasties, as it would to the Nationalists (Koumintang) after the Civil War of 1949.

We can see that China is a vast country that is definitely not easy to govern. When a dynasty breaks up, it can result in fragmentation until the next dynasty reunites the country. This is what the Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China, accomplished. Maybe this is why China's government makes sure to maintain control in regions like Tibet and Xinjiang. The period when China's north and south were governed separately explains China's emphasis today on the speaking of Mandarin Chinese to keep Cantonese speakers in the south as part of the country.

MIDDLE IMPERIAL CHINA

The Sui Dynasty didn't last long, from 581-618, but was very important in that it reunified the country and was the beginning of Middle Imperial China. The Sui Dynasty had the necessary governing skills to run the country. Their time saw the beginning of imperial exams and the Grand Canal to link north and south.

The Tang Dynasty was a great golden age. The capital was back at Xian which was the largest city in the world. The Japanese capitals of first Nara and then Kyoto were both modeled on Xian. Taizong was a famous Tang emperor, known for his logical thinking instead of superstition. The Tang Dynasty introduced gunpowder. Buddhism came to China in 1st Century but Tang Dynasty tried to suppress it.

Empress Wu, the only female emperor, briefly restored the Zhou Dynasty and the An Lushan Rebellion, in 755, began a chaotic period that ended the Tang Dynasty, ushering in the brief Yan Dynasty. "The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms" was a chaotic period, from 907 to 960, that saw the Shatuo Turks rule over the Han Chinese and Vietnam become an independent country.

The Song Dynasty, beginning in 960 with it's capital at Kaifeng, reunited most of China but there was the Liao Dynasty ruling in the far north. This was a high point of Chinese civilization, with paper money and printing with blocks of wood, but it ended with the conquest of China by the Mongols. There was also the Jin Dynasty, or Jurchen, from northeastern China, from where the Manchus would later come from to rule China.

The Song Dynasty is divided chronologically into the Northern Song and Southern Song. The Northern Song Dynasty had capital at Kaifeng but moved south after conquest by the Jin Dynasty to new capital on the other side of the Yangtze River at Hangzhou. This was actually the Later Jin Dynasty because there had been an Early Jin Dynasty. The Later Jin Dynasty lasted from 1115 to 1234.

OBSERVATIONS

Some people claim that the Chinese Government is somewhat hostile toward Christianity. But Buddhism was once a foreign religion that had been brought to China, it actually originated in India. One consequence of the Silk Road was that it was a way for foreign religions to enter China, and Buddhism wasn't always welcome either. The Tang Dynasty tried to suppress it. But today it is difficult to imagine China without Buddhism. Confucianism and Taoism are native to China. These are considered as China's "Three Teachings".

The long-reigning Joseon Dynasty, of neighboring Korea, revered Confucius even more than his native China did, and it also tried to suppress Buddhism.

LATE IMPERIAL CHINA

The Yuan Dynasty began in 1271 with Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, as emperor of China. Two of the three dynasties of Late Imperial China have been conquest dynasties. Non-Han conquerors before had not ruled all of China. Kublai Khan conquered the Jin and Southern Song Dynasties.Beijing was established as the Yuan Dynasty capital. The Grand Canal, linking Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north, was restored. Marco Polo visited from Europe and this was the only time that a single nation had controlled the entire Silk Road, which ran to the west from Xian. Hangzhou became very important as a port city. The paper money, with printing, of the Song Dynasty would bring the downfall of the Yuan by hyperinflation. The bubonic plague, which so devastated Europe, also came at this time. The Mongols were never completely enculturated as Chinese.

The Ming Dynasty began in 1368. The Mongols retreated northward to form the Northern Yuan Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty capitals were Beijing and Nanjing. The Ming Dynasty were great wall builders and the present city wall of the very old city of Xian was actually built by the Ming Dynasty. There was strong central government in China during their time. The Ming Great Wall was built, which is much of what we see of the Great Wall today.

The emphasis in economics during the Ming Dynasty was agriculture, not handicrafts. There was a lot of interaction with Japan and the Fourth Chinese Domination of Vietnam, lasting 20 years. In 1598, the Ming Dynasty got Japanese forces to leave Korea, restoring the Joseon Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty sent the Zheng He sea expeditions to Africa. It was the Ming Dynasty that built the famous Forbidden City of Beijing that we see today.

Ming Dynasty control declined in Manchuria, China's northeast region. Manchu tribes broke away and proclaimed the Later Jin Dynasty, named for the earlier Jin, which brought to an end the Mongol Northern Yuan Dynasty. This Later Jin Dynasty would become known as the Qing Dynasty. They were called Manchus after Manchuria and would rule China from 1644-1911.

The Manchu were also known as Jurchens. This would be the second conquest dynasty, after the Yuan, to rule all of China. The Jurchen people had established the earlier Jin Dynasty. In 1635 name was changed from Jurchen to Manchu. "Jin" means gold. Nurhaci was first Qing Dynasty emperor.

The Shun Dynasty was a brief one-year period of rule between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, led by Li Zicheng in 1644. It was formed back in the original capital of imperial China, Xian. It had started as a peasant rebellion against the Ming Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty, the Manchus, captured Beijing in 1644. A Ming general had appealed to the Manchus for help against the uprising that brought the Shun Dynasty, but then they went on to conquer China and rule as the Qing Dynasty. The Qing conquest of the Ming would last most of the Seventeenth Century, 1618-1683, and would be very bloody, especially at a place called Yangzhou where the Qing were enraged at the loss of many of their soldiers due to cannon fire.

The Ming Dynasty continued on for a time in southern China, known as the Southern Ming Dynasty and ruled from Nanjing. The Ming Dynasty was eventually limited to the Kingdom of Tungning, on Taiwan, with hope to recapture the mainland. The Qing Dynasty evacuated the coast of the mainland opposite Taiwan.

The elite military force of the Qing Dynasty was called the Eight Banners, the rest was the Green Standard Army. Russia was a rising power too and the Qing Dynasty had border clashes with them. The unsuccessful "Revolt of the Three Feudatories" was three southern provinces revolting against the Qing Dynasty rule. The revolt was suppressed by Kangxi Emperor, one of the greatest of Chinese emperors.

The Manchus did adopt Confucianism but in 1645 forced the Han Chinese to wear the Queue hairstyle. The late Eighteenth Century was the height of the Qing Dynasty.

But the Qing Dynasty was weakened by internal revolts, particularly the Taiping Rebellion by Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to be the younger brother of Christ, 1851-64. It began in the south of China, with Nanjing as it's eventual capital. It was the worst conflict in the world before the World Wars.

Dowager Cixi was the mother of the ninth Qing emperor, and she held effective power for decades. Upon her son's death, she broke succession rules to install her nephew as emperor. The Self-Strengthening Movement and the Hundred Days Reform were late Nineteenth-Century efforts at reform and modernization by the Qing Dynasty.

OBSERVATIONS

Notice how the Ming Dynasty economic emphasis on agriculture, rather than on industry, is reflected in the emphasis of the 1960s Cultural Revolution on what city people could learn by going to work on farms.

The Ming Dynasty would eventually retreat to Taiwan. This was repeated in 1949 when the Nationalists (Koumintang) also withdrew to Taiwan after defeat in the Civil War.

The Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols, conquered the Song Dynasty. But the Song Dynasty had widely used paper money. China also had printing with blocks. This combination of easily printing money proved damaging to the Yuan Dynasty, as their economy suffered from hyperinflation.

The Ming Dynasty naval missions of Admiral Zheng He to Africa set the precedent of China's widespread business across Africa today.

The revolt in southern China against the Qing Dynasty helps explain why the Chinese Government today, with the northern city of Beijing as capital, wants to emphasize speaking Mandarin Chinese over the Cantonese that is spoken in the south.

Some consider it unfortunate that the Chinese Government today has some hostility to Christianity. As we have seen, Buddhism was also once a foreign religion that was not always welcome either. But we have to understand the Taiping Rebellion of 1851-64. It was led by Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to be "a younger brother of Christ". The goal was to set up the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The rebellion ruled much of southern China and was possibly the deadliest conflict the world has ever seen, with the exception of the world wars. The rebellion was ultimately defeated but it is interesting that when the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, and Imperial China ended, the first president of the republic, Sun Yat Sen, was a Christian and a southerner.

The Qing Dynasty, or Manchus, was part of an imperial era of dynasties that lasted into the Twentieth Century. There was the Romanov Dynasty in Russia, the Ottomans in Turkey, the Qajar Dynasty in Iran, the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan, the Kaisers in Germany, the Joseon Dynasty in Korea and, the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam.

THE MODERN REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 began with the Wuchang Uprising. Wuchang is part of the city of Wuhan. Old stories of Qing Dynasty brutalities during the conquest of the Ming Dynasty were brought up to inspire anti-Qing feelings. A provisional government was formed in Nanjing that ended two thousand years of imperial rule. But this brought the "Warlord Era" when the country almost fragmented. This fragmentation was a repeat of the much-earlier endings of the Zhou and Han Dynasties..

Sun Yat Sen wanted to modernize China, and realized that the Qing Dynasty must be overthrown in order to accomplish that. He made unsuccessful attempts at overthrow, and spent much time in exile. Sun Yat Sen was a Christian and was in the U.S. when the Xinhai Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and ending Imperial China, and he went home.

At first there were two governments, based in Canton in the south and Beijing in the north. But Sun Yat Sen's forces triumphed and a new capital was established in Nanjing. Sun Yat Sen remains popular today both on mainland China and in Taiwan.

Sun Yat Sen died of cancer in 1925. His very popular mausoleum is in Nanjing, which was his capital. Sun Yat Sen is today honored and admired across the world, and is considered as the founder of modern China.

Chiang Kai Shek was his protege that led the Northern Expedition to defeat the warlords. Chiang Kai Shek was also a post-humous brother-in-law of Sun Yat Sen. Chiang Kai Shek ruled 1928-1975 and brought the body of Sun Yat Sen to the mausoleum in his capital of Nanjing. His government was split into left and right. The Left Koumintang capital was in Wuhan, the right Koumintang capital in Nanjing. Like Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai Shek was not in China when the Xinhai Revolution began.

There were a number of Long Marches by the Communists, after initially being unable to take power, not just one. The destination of the Long Marches was Shanxi province. In Civil War, the Nationalists (Koumintang) generally controlled the cities but not the countryside. The Communists, led by Chairman Mao, triumphed in the Civil War of 1949 and the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan. There is no sign of the two being reunited. But the world now generally recognizes the mainland, the People's Republic of China, as the "real" China.

Chairman Mao died in 1976 and Deng Xiaoping, although not Mao's chosen successor, took power. China was officially Communist but the government of Deng Xiaoping undertook far-reaching reforms, beginning in 1978. The majority of industry remained owned by the state, but there would be a chance for private business and foreign investment and ownership would be permitted in certain "Special Economic Zones". From there, the economy has gradually been liberalized in stages. The goal is to avoid the dogmatism of the west and achieve the best mix of a centrally-controlled economy and a market economy. In some areas, the free market may work best, but in others it may not. The result has been remarkable prosperity, although the liberalizing reforms are not universally popular, and some have been scaled back.

Two of the best-known Special Economic Zones, familiar to westerners, have been the new city of Shenzhen, just opposite Hong Kong, and the new financial district of Shanghai, Lujiazui.

OBSERVATIONS

The life story of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh, as a world traveler and leader, is quite similar to that of Sun Yat Sen.

Vietnam, a neighboring Communist country began it's own roughly similar economic liberalizing reforms in 1986.