Fundamentals of Physics 5d)
Falsification
Gravity
In 1647 Gassendi resurrected the ancient ‘kinetic’ atomic theory of the ultimate structure of macroscopic matter and later in this century Christaan Huygens introduced his seminal work on the propagation of light and Newton his Law of Gravity, which introduced the problem of their transmission through and within a vacuum.
369 years later this atomic theory remains securely in place today as the foundation upon which the science of theoretical physics is based.
As a result theoretical physicists today have absolutely no idea how gravity is transmitted between any two masses, and when light, in many thousands of experiments, has been proven unequivocally to propagate as a wave, they have no sensible, verifiable suggestion as to how a wave of light can propagate through the hypothetical, non-material, zero-inertia ’empty space’ or vacuum.
After nearly four centuries of attempts by great minds to solve this problem, it is therefore indisputable that there is no possible modification or ‘adjustment’ to the core assumptions on which kinetic theory is based that could enable such a structure of macroscopic matter to sustain these transmissions.
No doubt this is the reason why theoretical physicists for the last 90 odd years have expended little energy in studying the interactions of atoms at this level, and have instead focused their energies, and an enormous amount of funding by governments around the world, on dissecting the nucleus of the atom itself into hundreds of ‘virtual’ particles (which apparently are now not particles in the true meaning of the word).
Perhaps all this effort was in the vain hope that this internal atomic structure will somehow provide a solution to this impasse, but as to how they could collectively come to the conclusion that this would lead to an understanding of how gravity is transmitted through a structure of macroscopic matter composed of atoms moving in a universally permeating vacuum defies logic.
For the propagation of this, and any other, force Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion states that action and reaction, attraction and repulsion are essential.
For example take two tennis balls and if we place them close together on a level surface they are attracted to one another, but will not move closer due to extraneous factors such as the friction between them and the surface.
We can exaggerate the small attractive force by holding them and pushing them together, which will result in the deformation of the balls at the point of contact, and if we maintain the pressure and hold them in that position, there is a repulsive force acting between them at that point.
So here we have action and reaction, an(artificially induced)attraction and a natural repulsion, and this replicates the interactions of any two massive bodies that come into contact through the motion of one or both.
The two massive spheres shown below, suspended against the Earth’s gravity on long cables, are observed to incline towards each other, away from their natural alignment to the centre of the Earth, and there is obviously an attractive force acting (somehow) between them, which can be precisely calculated if the masses are known and, according to Newton’s 3rd Law, a repulsive force must also be acting between them. But there is no possibility of such forces acting through the vacuum of a kinetic gas.
Kinetic atomic theory today states that the intervening space is occupied by atmospheric gases composed essentially of diatomic molecules of nitrogen and oxygen that are moving at velocities of around 500 metres per second and colliding with each other, and with the surfaces of these spheres, and that collectively these molecules occupy just one thousandth of the total volume of the gases, while the remainder is a vacuum. (This situation is indicated in the second diagram below, and while the numbers are of course incorrect, it serves to illustrate the issue.)
The collisions of atoms with the facing surfaces of these spheres can only exert a repulsive force on the spheres, so no attractive influence could possibly be envisaged by the intervening cloud of kinetic atoms, and accordingly the force of gravitation in these hypothetical circumstances must be transmitted through the intervening, non-material space.
Newton wrote that “one body may act upon another – through a vacuum – through which their action or force may be conveyed – is to me so great an absurdity that – no man who has a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it” (In other words he would be stupid.)
Today physicists say that this vacuum is not ‘empty’ (this of course being a contradiction in terms),and that it is ‘full’ of (let us say) ‘characteristics’ such as ‘waves of energy’ etc. etc..
But at the same time the theory requires that this, extra-atomic intervening space (of any speculative composition)cannot have any characteristic that can impede the kinetic motion of molecules and atoms within and through it.
So we have the absurd situation where physicists, after centuries of failure, continue to believe, or rather hope, that somehow this must be possible in terms of the currently accepted hypothetical structure, however it is a simple, and undeniable, fact that the transfer of an attractive force between these two, and between any other two massive objects of any dimension is, in such circumstances, an impossibility.
The application of logic would suggest that this demonstrates that there is something inherently false with kinetic theory.
But todays physicists have, for the last 80 odd years, focused their efforts on examining the internal structure of the atom itself and appear to have ignored this dimension, perhaps because it is considered to be elementary, having being instilled, effectively as proven, in physics students during their secondary education.
This focus has cost taxpayers around the world huge sums, for example CERN alone has to date cost over $13 billion and its annual running costs are over $1 billion.
One commentator apparently argued that this “is a small price to pay for the secrets of the universe”, but no doubt he or she did not consider that the secret of the transmission of the force of gravitation, in particular here at the Earth’s surface, was so important.
But in the real, macroscopic world, where atoms have been proven to be the ultimate, natural, material entities, the forces of nature can only be the result of an inter-connection, a transmission of forces and energy between atoms.
In such circumstances, where the interactions of atoms are still unexplained, the question is:-
Why is it believed by the vast majority of physicists that they can discover the “secrets of the universe” and the origins, the causes of the transfer of forces through macroscopic matter, by dissecting the nucleus of the atom itself?