Why??

[Mickey]

In the general order of things, we are lead to believe that all is explained and understood!?     Many of the Newton concepts regarding energy/gravity have been accepted.    But why are they??

I've always been fascinated by magnets and gyroscopes - what is that drives their inherent forces.  The top physics can only postulate!  There is no explanation!

Another thing is electromagnetic radiation – why can we receive signals from distant galaxies light years way?   The energy in those waves have traversed a vacuum without any detectable particle being present? Yet Albert Einstein’s theory states that energy E=mc2  - but where in the vacuum of space is the mass to convey that energy??  The scientist get out is the “ether”

What is going on?

Mickey

[Ivan]

Quite the contrary, if you study science, you don't need to get beyond A-level to find words like 'may be', 'thought to be'  'possibly' - scientists have never given the impression that they know everything, although perhaps the popular press does.

Things that aren't readily explained by people with rudimentary knowledge are assumed to be unexplained by science. None of the things mentioned are unexplained mysteries, although it's true to say if you keep asking 'why' and keep looking closer, there will become a point at which you cannot see clearly enough to answer your own questions (at least not without using probability instead of certainty).

Read some scientific books on the subjects (as opposed to pseudo-science or free energy stuff), and you'll find most of what you need to know.

[Mickey]

A nice thought Ivan – if the answers are out there then why haven't they been put into practice?  The notion that someone understands how it's possible to transport energy through a vacuum without any physical means of support would be a dramatic breakthrough to say the least!

We use magnetism  & gravity to produce power but only as a catalyst not the source.

I'm sorry but I keep coming back to “why”

[oliver90owner]

Mickey,

catalyst

My understanding of this is it is something which changes the rate at which a particular action, or reaction, takes place, generally speeding up a chemical reaction by lowering the activation energy requirement.  this usually allows a dynamic equilibrium to be attained far quicker than without the catalyst.  Your use of the word seems different to mine.

Newton concepts regarding energy/gravity have been accepted

Not so.  Newtonian physics are accepted as 'near enough'.  They have, of course, been superceded by Einstein and his Relativity Theories. The fact remains that to all intents and purposes the Newtonian result will be sufficiently accurate/precise unless relatively (pardon the pun) high velocities are concerned (generally above C/2)

we are lead to believe that all is explained and understood

Are we?  Then why is there so much research going on?  The Large Hadron Collider comes to mind amongst a mysiad of other research programmes

But why are they??

Hypotheses become Theories when they are accepted as proven, by experiment.  There is no other way.  We are still making hypotheses and attempting to convert them to theory. 

Some, Like Newtonian Physics, stood the tests in the day and were accepted as theory only later to be found to be 'not quite correct' later.  That is simply progress.  Some theories of the day (eg Phlogiston Theory) have been found to be simply wrong, and have been replaced by other, more reliable theories.

Do not mix up the meaning of hypothesis and theory.  remember theory can be wrong.  remember we do not know everything.  Research may give us better insight to how things actually occur.  Until then we accept the best proven as theory and strive to either reinforce or disprove as the circumstances dictate.

Lastly,

traversed a vacuum without any detectable particle being present

Now. are we considering the energy wave or the vacuum as being 'without any detectable particle veing present'?

Good job there were no particles!  Otherwise they would not have arrived, would they?  Just go back to Einstein.  Mass cannot be accelerated to C.  Therefore energy must have zero mass.  OK energy is mC², etc, etc.

Round we go in the argument.

Regards, RAB

[Mickey]

Good posting - rather than asking "why" should I be requesting "how".     I agreed that much research needs to be done: How I can transmit radio waves and receive them over a vast distances?   How does a magnet attract ferrous objects?  Basic stuff.

I've just ordered, from Amazon , the complete works of H G Wells and Arthur C Clark to broaden my knowledge of all things.  Roll over Einstein.

Mickey

[Anjou]

One of the fave books in my collection is Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

He had a way of explaining the real techy stuff that made sense to me.

[Billy]

....paints face red, plucks feather from goose, stamp feet, smokey peace pipe.....

[Fiat]

Hi Billy should that not be how

[Billy]

Exactly 

Just replying to Mickey's later post,

took me straight back to childhood in front of tv

when they used to tell us all sorts of odd information,

Did they really dress as red Indians or was that my imagination?

[Mickey]

Amy, Carl Sagen , was in a class of his own – we are definitely all the poorer for his early demise.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan   

Carl believed in a greater life – the SETI project for example.     But that said no one, to date, has managed to explain the very basics i.e. – How did life start?   Where does the universe end and what is there after that?   The every day things, that we take for granted, intrigue me. There is no concrete explanation as to “how” it all happens.      Put a coil of copper wire within a spinning magnet and it produces electricity.   Then measure the flux density of the magnet, before & after, and it is exactly the same.  Hence my reasoning of a catalytic effect i.e. it influenced the process but did not contribute N.B. there was no loss.

All my life I've been involved in radio communications.  I've never found a rational explanation as how a collection of electronic components can be influenced by very weak energy emanating from some distant galaxy.

The truth is there – somewhere?

[Anjou]

I find it amazing that whilst we have an answer or theory for just about everything on the planet, there are things in space that we will never know or come close to understanding.
In our finite world its easy to quantify things no matter how vast, but theres just no comprehending the vastness of space and hard to imagain there being no boundary or end to it.

As for time, its a meaningless word and concept.

[Paulh_Boats]

How I can transmit radio waves and receive them over a vast distances?    Basic stuff.

Here goes:
Lets do light first as its easier....

There are many sub-atomic particles and a handy graph to collate them is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg
Note they all have different combinations of mass, charge and spin direction.

The most common particles are electrons and photons.

Electrons spin around an atom in an orbit; there are many orbits at fixed distances from the atom...a bit like planes flying around the world at the same heights. The outer (or highest) electrons can jump from one atom to the next and so on...this flow of electrons is what we call electric current and it powers everything electrical.

Also an electron can drop down to a lower orbit; when it does that it releases a photon......which on that chart above is simply a burst of energy. In other words as the electron drops to a lower orbit, the energy it lost is released as a photon.

Photons move at the speed of light through a vacuum or air. They have no mass, but the photon flies through space until it hits something, like the back of our eye when we look at the night sky. The photon's energy is released and our eye sends a signal to the brain that we have seen something.....and that photon could have started millions of years ago in a distant star.

So light is a collection of photon particles flying through space.

The photons may hit a PV solar panel...... their energy will kick an electron UP to a higher orbit, which is the exact reverse of the photon's creation. From that higher orbit those electrons can jump to the next atom and hence electric current flows from the PV panel.

Its worth noting that Einstein/Max Planck discovered photon particles through complex mathematics; Newton thought light was a continuous wave simply by observation, which was not accurate enough.


"Radio Waves" The classical theory is that radio is an electric field and a magnetic field at right angles...that move through space as a wave.
But Einstein's approach is that a radio wave is a stream of photons; in other words the energy of the radio wave is transmitted as a stream of photon particles. 
The mathematics of the Einstein/Max Planck theories get very complex very quickly, so here endeth the lesson.

[Billy]

if only Paul had been my physics master!

and he's practical

he can say it and do it,

his gourd his gourd, 

[Anjou]

Like, er, whoaaaa, far out dude.

What happens to the photon once it hits the back of an eye?
If its a particle thats able to fly through space, it must have substance?  If it has a mass, it consists of something material and solid?

[Billy]

just look at the back of my head 

blood wee  photons