The basic idea presented and defended in this book is that a strict particle model of physics can account for the universe as we know it. All physical phenomena can be explained in terms of particles and motion. Nothing happens without direct interaction, and no particle quantum can be created or destroyed. There are no mysterious variables that can only be understood in mathematical terms. Everything is strictly physical in a kinetic sense of the word.
At the lowest level, everything is particles knocking into each other to produce force and hooking up to each other to create structures. The sub-atomic isn't an unfathomable complex of unearthly vibrations and energies. Rather, it's a stripped down version of what we experience as reality in our everyday lives.
What follows is an incremental approach to this model. We start with the premise that all things derive in some way from particles existing in a void. From this we build our complete theory by gradually introducing concepts from real world observations and experiments.
We introduce nothing new and unheard of. Apart from the fundamental premise of our theory, everything relates to known particles and phenomena. Every explanation follows logically from the basics. Every physical phenomenon relates back to a common set of fundamentals. No part of our theory is disjunct from other parts. We discover that all physical phenomena can be explained using our basic set of rules.
Let us therefore start with the theoretical framework and move on from this to real world experiments and observations.
The nothing and the something
A nothing is by definition without properties. A nothing has no extent, has no position, has no time. It's void of any and all qualities. A something on the other hand has at least one property. From this alone, we know that space, however empty it may be, is still a something, and so is time. Space has dimensions and extent, and time has direction and duration.
Time and distance
Time and distance have no meaning without any reference to clocks and rulers. For time and distance to exist, there must be motion and extent.
We perceive time because things move. Likewise for distance. It too is a relative measure. We measure things in relation to ourselves or some other ruler. Without things, there are no distances and no time, only a void where nothing exists and nothing ever happens.
Time duration and the arrow of time
Time duration is a relative measure of how long something takes to complete. The arrow of time, on the other hand, is the direction of time. The fact that things happen sequentially is due to the arrow of time.
To illustrate the difference between the arrow of time and time duration, imagine a universe in which all motion stops, including our biological functions. Let us further imagine that this state persists for aeons as measured by a God clock. Then, everything starts moving normally again. As far as we're concerned, nothing unusual happened. We've been brought forward by the arrow of time. The fact that it took aeons to go from one tick to another tick on our clocks, never registered with anyone.
Time, as far as we're concerned, is unaffected by any glitch in the God clock. Time is relative motion, detectable by our biological being, our clocks, and the universe at large. The arrow of time is the sequence of events, while time itself is relative speeds. This will be explained in further details in the chapter on kinetics.
The void
A void is an infinity of nothing. It has no dimensions. It has no extent. It has no time. As such, it mustn't be confused with empty space, which has both dimensions and extent. Two objects placed in empty space can be separated by any distance. However, two objects placed into a void will be in physical contact with each other regardless of where they are placed. This is because a void, contrary to space, is nothing. With nothing separating two objects, they must be in contact. The only way to separate two objects in a void is to encapsulate one of them inside a third object.
If there is any kind of gap in the encapsulation of an object residing in a void, any texture that the object may have, small enough to brush into the gap, will be able to touch an outside object. This is because the gap itself is void of distance. It doesn't matter how thick the wall of the encapsulation is, if there's a gap, even the shortest filament will be able to reach out and touch an outside object.
If we fill a void with a bunch of spherical balls, we'll end up with little gaps everywhere. These gaps are dimensionless voids, so any texture that the balls may have will reach out and brush into other balls with no regards to distance. This is contrary to our physical existence at the macro level. However, evidence suggests that the void is real, and that space is full of tiny gaps.
Experimental physics has demonstrated that subatomic particles that have been entangled through direct contact with each other, will remain entangled even when separated in space by a considerable distance. This strange behaviour seems to defy the idea that things have to be in physical contact in order to interact. However, if space is full of tiny gaps, and these gaps are voids, all we need in order to explain the phenomenon of quantum entanglement is for our particles to have textures fine enough to interact through these gaps.
Space
Space is an aether filled void. Since a void has no properties, we must conclude that space and aether are two sides of the same thing.
Particle quanta
A particle is anything that comes as a small package. It may be a bundle of strings. It may be a droplet. It may be a grain. It may spin or twist. It may be possible to subdivide further. None of this matter. As long as it comes in a neat little package, it's a particle.
A particle quantum has the additional quality that any subdivision of it will add nothing to our understanding. The particle quantum is not necessarily the physical limit of subdivisions. Rather, it's the logical limit beyond which further subdivisions are meaningless.
For the purpose of our physics, particle quanta can neither be created nor destroyed. They are as eternal as the void.
Unlike the void, our particle quanta come with a set of properties. They are:
- Dimensions: Particle quanta have 3 dimensions.
- Size: Particle quanta have size. They have surface area. They have diameter. Particle quanta may or may not be spherical. However, for simplicity we will deal with them as if they are perfect spheres.
- Motion: Particle quanta can move.
- Texture: Particle quanta come in 3 types, each with its own texture. The 3 possible textures are:
- Abrasive
- Woolly
- Mixed (part abrasive and part woolly)
A lone particle in a void
With the above in mind, we can consider a lone particle in a void. Since the void is an infinity of nothing, the only thing with any properties in this imagined universe is the particle itself. All attributes refer to the particle, not the void. The void is still an infinity of nothing, even as we place a particle in it.
From this, we see that it's not the void that has properties. It's the particle. All that can be known about this tiny universe is derived directly from the particle. Our notion of space is not derived from the void, but from particles.
Particles have diameter and circumference. They can therefore function as rulers. For reasons that will become clear later, the circumference of an electron is our real world unit of length.
Two particles in a void
Let us now imagine a second particle. The void is just as ready to accept this as it was in accepting the first one. The void is an infinity of nothing. It has no restrictions. Whatever we put into it is fine with it.
Note that our two particles will necessarily be directly adjacent to each other. This is because the void in which they are placed have no dimensions of its own. No matter where we place our two particles, they will always be in direct physical contact because there's nothing separating them.
Our second particle may be of identical size, or different size from the first one. Either way the notion of relative sizes arises. We can arbitrarily choose one of the two particles as our reference, and measure the other particle relative to it. We can now make precise statements about distance and bearing of the second particle relative to our first one.
We can also detect motion. We can give one or both of our particles a push, making them roll around each other. This motion is not very informative. There's no way to say how fast our particles are moving because we have no reference speed. We have no clock. It's only when we introduce a third particle that it becomes possible to make statements related to how fast things are moving.
Three particles in a void
When we add a third particle to our void, the concept of time arises, again as a relative measure. We arbitrarily choose one particle to represent our unit of length, and a second particle to represent our unit of speed. Every time our second particle circles our first, we have a unit of time. This constitutes a clock where a unit of time can be defined as follows:
- 1 unit of time = 1 unit of length / 1 unit of speed
Now, we can make the following precise statements about our third particle:
- We can locate its position in terms of unit length and bearing in 3 dimensions.
- We can measure its speed in terms of unit lengths per unit time.
A multitude of particles in a void
Let us now proceed to put a multitude of particles into our void. As already noted, every particle must necessarily be in physical contact with its neighbouring particles. This means that if one particle moves, neighbouring particles must accommodate for this. They must either allow neighbouring particles to flow through themselves, or they must move with the flow.
Real world particles that can move at varying speeds, independent of the speed of aether particles, are known as particles of inertial matter. They allow aether particles to flow through themselves.
However, aether particles are opaque to other aether particles and must therefore move at the same speed as other aether particles. They move neither slower nor faster than the speed allowed by this collective property. This speed is what we refer to as the speed of light.
Limits of our theory
The only premise of our theory is that all physical concepts are in some way related to particles and their properties. We have no explanation as to why particles have dimensions, extent and texture. Nor do we present any explanation for why there's anything at all. This book is not a cosmology. We present no explanation for existence itself.
< Introduction ------------ | ------------ Four stable particles >
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