Moe Dickson

Getting it right

February 20, 2006 |  0 comments
Image Credit: OK, let me understand this. Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree reading a book. Hold it! He hadn’t been knighted yet. Take 2 – Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree reading a book. An apple fell naturally from its branch and landed on poor Isaac’s head. Soon thereafter Isaac began trying to explain such a basic phenomena using normal mathematics only to discover that he needed much more power behind his numbers. And so he, along with a few other like-minded men, invented calculus. Using calculus Isaac Newton could describe his observations of bodies moving through space and objects flying through the atmosphere. Eventually, he was dubbed ‘Sir’ for his contributions to mankind’s ever increasing confusion, later termed ‘science’. But he never did define the nature of gravity.

Today, even with multiple varieties of the String Theory, we are no closer to understanding this basic force than Sir Isaac Newton was. But we do know that the space through which objects move is much more complex than simply a ‘void’. Space, it seems, contains time. String theory has predicted the discovery of gravitons, that may eventually account for the unknown force of gravity, which have no mass, but can be measured in terms of spin. They are not globes of force, but rather ‘strings’ of tension or energy. Will they be found in space-time?

I spend way too much time trying to conceive this idea; and it is just the beginning. Space is curved. I should say, ‘Space-time is curved’. So just what is this force that holds Mother Earth in orbit and keeps us from flying off into deep, curved space-time? Talk about unexplained mysteries!

Let’s suppose that the moon was to vanish instantly. Earth’s orbit around the sun would then change instantly also, due to the change in mass and the moving of our center of gravity. The effect would be ‘instantaneous’ even though the new cycle would take ‘time’ to be completed. That’s right. The forces being applied to the earth would change without the passage of time — thus defying the universal constant of the speed of light. This is unexplainable. It blows calculus to pieces.

It is as though all pieces of matter are aware of all others. That when one chunk changes direction, for whatever reason, the rest adjust accordingly at the instant the change in course is taken. Somehow, the chunks are connected, acting as a single object rather than separate ones. Yet theoretically, information cannot travel beyond the speed of light.But suppose we did understand this force. Suppose we could harness it. Could we not then defy the speed of light also? Could we not travel through space-time?

We have measured increments of time slowing down as our relative speed increases in aircraft. It is minutely observable. Einstein’s equations prove time passage is different for the stationary object as opposed to the moving one. But everything is moving. There is no such thing as stationary. The entire universe is expanding.

Just in writing this feeble attempt of a layman’s look at dynamics, I find a disturbing pain in my temples. Imagining the scope of motion and passage of time as interrelated brings new meaning to consciousness, a necessary step if we are ever to conquer this first frontier that Sir Isaac Newton forged. Be that as it may, our mathematicians and scientists are working the problem in a language we common folk may never begin to comprehend. But we need to know of its existence. We need to see the vastness of our ignorance. We should admit that somewhere, at sometime, another intelligent species has unlocked what we have not.

The conspiracy of today is the same one that has always stifled our best minds. It is sublime in part but ultimately a political and social influence. It says that conventional wisdom is the product of irrefutable evidence. That mainstream thought is the only practical view, all others being subject to intense criticism and skepticism.

My own opinion is that science fiction, in many cases, has been right on target since the Nautilus first submerged beyond the depths of our imagination. Never mind that DaVinci made detailed drawings of the flying machine (among other devices). Yes, it is the brave soul who begins his/her assumptions at the border of conventional wisdom who is most likely next to enlighten us. Long live the open mind, and would someone please figure out what gravity is?

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