Comments on Some Issues Raised at the 1978 Conference

It is not possible in the short time that is available in the conference sessions, to give full consideration to all of the issues that are brought up, and most of the discussions were elaborated to a considerable extent in informal conversations outside the regular sessions. A few comments on some of the more important points may be of interest to those that did not happen to be present when these particular issues were discussed.

Energy at high speeds:

One of the questions that came up was what happens to the energy at very high speeds. This is one of the multitude of issues that have not yet been studied in the context of the Reciprocal System because of the limited amount of time and effort that have thus far been available for the task. I was not able, therefore, to do any more than suggest the possible nature of the answer at the conference. Since my return home I have given some further thought to the matter, and while some of the details need more study, I believe that the general picture is now reasonably clear.

In a universe of motion the condition of rest, the datum level from which all physical activity extends, is unit scalar motion in each of the three dimensions. Units of speed (measured as displacement from the unit level) may be added, bringing the displacement up to the +2 level (speed 2/1) or subtracted, bringing the displacement down to the -2 level (speed 1/2). Since motion exists only in discrete units fractional units of simple motion are not possible. This situation is represented by diagram A.

 

 

Line (1) is expressed in speed displacement units measured from the zero datum. Line (2) is the same measured from the natural datum. Lines (3) and (4) are the corresponding values. By an appropriate process such as a powerful explosion, units of speed displacement can be added to an object, accelerating it successively from -3 to -2, -1 and 0. It then enters the high speed environment and is further accelerated by environmental influences.

The units of motion represented in this diagram are all directed inward as no further speed can be added to the unit outward progression. But where there is no effective motion in two of the three dimensions (that is, the speed is unity) geometric combinations of inward and outward motions with fractional net inward speeds may exist in the third dimension. These compound motions are the motions of our ordinary experience: motions of masses. The inherent scalar motion of the mass unit (the gravitational motion) is an inward motion at unit speed: the kind of a unit in which line (1) of diagram A is expressed. In the compound motion, an outward, or reverse, motion is applied to the mass in the form of successive units of what we may call reverse energy. The result of this process in terms of the net speed and energy of the compound motion is shown in diagram B.

When the first effective unit of reverse energy is applied to the one effective energy unit of the mass, the net energy is 1-1 = 0. One additional unit produces 1=2 = -1. The corresponding figures for net speed are 1-1 = 0, and 1-½ = ½ The net speed (the observed speed) is therefore a fractional inward unit. If the process could be carried to completion, tho reverse speed would be 1/m and the net speed would be a full unit (the speed of light). But this point cannot be reached as it would require an infinite amount of reverse energy.

Here, then, is the answer to the question raised at the conference. As the net speed approaches unity the energy approaches infinity, not because of any change in the mass, but because adding energy does not increase the speed directly; it accomplishes the increase by reducing the reverse speed component, and the most that can be accomplished, even by an infinite amount of energy, is to reduce that reverse component to zero. This does not preclude reaching speeds greater than unity by direct addition of units of speed, as indicated in diagram A.

Conservation:

The postulates that define the physical universe do not provide any means whereby motion can be created or destroyed. Total motion is therefore conserved; that is, the total quantity of motion remains constant. This motion can be measured either as speed s/t, or as energy t/s. In either case the total number of units is the same. If the motion is expressed in terms of energy all of the phenomena of the cosmic sector take place within the units of energy; while if the motion is expressed in terms of speed a11 of the phenomena of the material sector take place within the units of speed, as indicated in diagram B. The quantity that is conserved is the number of complete units, energy in the material sector and speed in the cosmic sector.

Conservation is absolute only in application to total motion, but it can be applied to different forms of motion with the qualification that it is applicable only to the extent that there is no transfer to or from any other form of motion. The conservation laws, other than the one applying to total motion, cannot be used where any transformation process is involved nor can they be used as an argument against the existence of a transformation process.

Current electricity:

Inasmuch as the electron is in effect, a rotating unit of space, the movement of electrons (space) through matter is essentially equivalent to movement of matter through space and it is subject to exactly the same basic relations. The physics of current electricity applies to the mechanical aspects of the one-dimensional particles (electron and positron) rather than to their peculiarly electrical properties. We may therefore deal with current electricity by the usual methods of mechanics, using the same mathematical expressions, and if we wish, the same terminology. The quantity of electricity, the number of electrons (units of space), can be expressed in centimeters, or some other space unit, just as well as in units such as coulombs. The rate of current flow is the number of electrons per unit time, and it can be expressed in cm/sec just as well as in amperes. Resistance is mass per (nit time, and it can be expressed in grams per second, or some equivalent unit. This is not the mass of the electron which is massless, but the mass through which the electron moves.) The product of resistance and time, Rt, is mass. In order to get the energy of the flow (the amount of heat imparted to the conductor) we use the same expressions that we apply to ordinary motion. This energy is ½ mv², or in electrical terms RtI² . Or it can be obtained as the product of force and distance. Electromotive force, measured in volts, is no different from any other force, and could be measured in any other force units. The distance is the electrical quantity, or the more easily measured product of the current and the time. The energy is then VIt.

While the motion of space (electrons) through matter has the same mechanical properties as the motion of matter through space, it is nevertheless a different phenomenon and it has some properties of its own. These are governed by a set of purely electrical relations. A whole new class of phenomena develops when the electrons acquire charges. In their early history static and current electricity were recognized as two different phenomena but since charges are easily produced and easily destroyed there is considerable interplay between the two, and the distinction has largely been lost. This has introduced some confusion. For instance, electric charge, which is a motion is expressed in the same units as electrical quantity, which is space only. As long as we deal separately with charge and quantity, each in its own context the fact that “coulomb“has two entirely different meanings does not result in any difficulty. But such confusions obviously stand in the way of a clear understanding of the phenomena that are involved.

Potential energy:

The gravitational motion of an atom is constant, but because it is distributed in all directions the portion of this motion that is exerted in the net direction of movement is only a fraction of the total. The energy of this portion of the motion is kinetic energy. The remainder of the total energy is potential energy. As the net motion in the direction of greatest mass effect continues, the portion of the total motion that is directed toward a given area in that direction increases inversely as the square of the distance by reason of the geometrical relations. The motion is therefore accelerated, and the kinetic energy is increased at the expense of the potential energy.