The whole theory of relativity is based on the premise that there is an upper limit ‘c’ to the speed of light. At this limit the relativity of space and time becomes quite evident. The Newtonian model of absolute space and absolute time no longer works as this speed is approached.
The question that has been there in my mind for some time is ‘What makes the upper limit of the speed of light such an absolute quantity?’ The answer seems to be ‘the physicality of this universe.’
What is ‘physicality’? How does one define it? Physicality would be defined by perception through our physical senses. All physical perceptions are consistent with each other. They are consistent with the measurements made through the use of physical instruments, such as, those used to measure the speed of light.
What is not physicality? The abstraction that we perceive through the mind would be a departure from physicality. This mental perception is different from the physical perception through eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. Mind is first and foremost a sense organ. It perceives mental objects and the interactions among them. The mental objects are the abstractions that underlie physical objects. For example, three cups, three plates and three spoons are physical objects. But the underlying pattern of three is a mental object.
Such abstraction may go deeper in the form of patterns underlying patterns. We see that in mathematics. The whole subject of mathematics is abstract. There are numbers, but underlying those numbers is the number theory. Thus, we may say that there is a basic dimension of abstraction. The deeper one goes in this dimension, the more abstract things are.
The upper limit of the dimension of abstraction is the perception through the physical sense organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. This is the physicality defined by space-time of Einstein. Space-time has four components: three of space and one of time. The concrete forms are conjectured to be derived from space-time as follows
(1) Energy is a ripple that travels through the fabric of space.
(2) Matter is the condensation of energy.
This physicality is simply the upper limit of abstraction. Underlying this physicality are layers of subtle to subtler forms generating the dimension of abstraction. This dimension of abstraction has been there all this time. We know that the physical perception soon converts into experience, and then to information, hypothesis, theory, principles, axioms, etc. These subtler layers are then perceived by the mind.
The progress of mankind is measured in this dimension of abstraction. It has long been recognized as such in the eastern philosophy of the Vedas. Now it is time to look at this fundamental dimension scientifically.
Science recognizes the physicality consisting of three components of SPACE, and the one component of TIME. SPACE can be felt as concrete as well as abstract. TIME can be felt as concrete as well as abstract. This makes the dimension of abstraction as the most basic dimension that underlies even space-time.
Science has not delved into the abstraction of space-time even when these subtler forms exist.
Science should recognize and investigate ABSTRACTION as a fundamental dimension underlying even space and time.
Physicality of space-time is just a surface phenomenon. There is a whole ocean of abstraction that underlies it. It seems that there are general laws yet to be discovered that connect physicality to underlying abstraction.
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As we move in the direction of abstraction, we note that mental force of persuasion is used quite often. A person who lets himself be persuaded without understanding, would develop mental mass.
Mental mass would be mental resistance to change.
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Mindfulness gradually frees one from mental mass as it defuses inner resistance.
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How does one address the condition of a person who is resisting to the idea of mindfulness itself?
The solution has to be getting that person in touch with his physical environment because mindfulness starts from there.
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Too many changes of ideas suddenly presented to another person will generate considerable mental mass (resistance).
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(14) To me, constant for all frames of reference means, constant for the universe as a whole. Different frames are different viewpoints within the universe.
(15) Alone out in the space, it is hard to discern if one is moving or not. Only acceleration is felt, whether linear or angular, as some kind of resistance to change. Once the change is over, it remains as a constant motion. In other words, constant motion determines a state. Acceleration is the shift between two different states. In life, we seems to keep moving in a certain state (personality). It is the momentous shift triggered by some shock or realization that brings changes to our personality. We feel those shifts keenly.
(16) Deep changes seem to occur due to acceleration. Regular motion is just motion that keeps repeating itself.
(17) The flavor of space and time changes with the frame of reference (viewpoint) within the universe. We assess the location in time and space of something with respect our own location in time and space. But when we take the historical viewpoint, or the viewpoint as the whole existence (universe), we start to get the idea of locations in a different time and space that approaches a constancy or “absoluteness.”
(18) This overall view of Space and Time from a universal perspective may be called Spacetime, and that seems to approach a constancy. For example, everything in the universe may be in a constant flux, changing from moment to moment. But universe as an entity persists. The idea of universe remains constant as abstraction. This is a very subtle idea.
(19) This constancy of universal presence may be called an abstraction. The constancy of the speed of light forces us to think in those universal terms that are not relative because there is no other universe to be relative to. Here we define the universe as “all that exists.”
(20) Thus, speed of light is a universal or spacetime phenomenon. Similarly, acceleration (shift) and resistance to that accleration or shift (inertia) appear as universal or spacetime phenomenon that are not dependent on frames of reference.
(21) Mass is associated with inertia. Therefore, mass seems to be a universal or spacetime phenomenon too. Gravity seems to be that ‘shift’ that has become permanent.
(22) Mass is not associated with uniform velocity. Mass is associated with acceleration ‘shift’. When that ‘shift’ is associated with matter, we get planets, solar systems and galaxies. Matter changes its ‘personality’ by acquiring mass.
(23) Mass is not associated with constant ‘c’, which cannot be distinguished from any other uniform velocity. Mass is associated with how fast or slow the accleration or decelaration from uniform velocity is.
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(24) Inertia is manifested as resistance to acceleration.
(25) When a particle is forced to accelerate from one uniform velocity to another uniform velocity, the inertia is stored as mass and expressed as gravity. Thus, gravity is the expression of shift from one uniform velocity to another.
(26) A planet with gravity has been shifted from some earlier velocity to its current velocity. It is not the current velocity that determines its gravity. Its gravity is determined by how much it has been acclerated in the past.
(27) If a particle is acquiring mass, then it is being accelerated.
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These are interesting statements. As you state “mass is acquired through acceleration” then how is mass different from momentum? Are you using mass interchangeably with momentum?
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(28) The state of zero mass is space.
(29) A particle is created when space is disturbed. This is where light comes in.
(30) When that particle is accelerated it acquires mass.
(31) When a particle is decelarated it moves toward the state of light and then to space.
(32) The mystery is how does the space, the disturbance, acceleration or decelertion come about.
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Vin: (28) The state of zero mass is space.
Chris: Questioning this as the zero mass of space reacting with the zero mass of EM can happen how?
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Somehow energy gets converted to mass through the mechanics of EMR.
(1) First there is the low frequency disturbance in space (radio waves)
(2) As energy is pumped in to this disturbance it goes through the stages of:
…….. Microwave
…….. Infra red
…….. Visible
…….. Ultraviolet
…….. X-ray
…….. Gamma
(3) The velocity does not increase as it is limited by the properties of space.
(4) As energy is pumped in frequency increases but a reaction also occurs.
(5) The reaction is in terms of the disturbance breaking up into wave packets.
(6) The wave packets behave like particles as more energy is pumped in.
(7) This is the realm of Schrodinger’s equation that I need to understand better.
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Vin: (29) A particle is created when space is disturbed. This is where light comes in.
Chris: Compare to (28). Now about matter and mass being different, are we saying that matter can have no mass? And that part of acceleration being mass . . . I get the shift in velocity being acceleration but not the part where acceleration equals mass.
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Vin: (30) When that particle is accelerated it acquires mass.
Chris: See my comments on (29)
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Vin: (31) When a particle is decelerated it moves toward the state of light and then to space.
Chris: Not following this.
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Vin: (32) The mystery is how does the space, the disturbance, acceleration or deceleration come about.
Chris: Yes this is a good question. There seems to be an unseen underpinning to it all.
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Space, Inertia, Mass and Gravity
1. The conclusion that speed of light is constant is arrived at by experimental results.
2. The speed of light is directly related to permittivity and permeability of free space (classical vacuum).
3. Permittivity of space is a constant that relates to the amount of resistance encountered when forming an electric field in a classical vacuum.
4. Permeability of space is a constant that relates to the amount of resistance encountered when forming a magnetic field in a classical vacuum.
5. Maxwell’s equations use the constants of permittivity and permeability in describing how electric and magnetic fields are generated and altered by each other in free space (classical vacuum).
6. The speed of light is the inverse of the square root of the product of permittivity and permeability.
7. Light is an electromagnetic wave that is made up of alternating electric and magnetic fields. These electric and magnetic fields appear to be disturbance in free space.
8. Thus, light appears to be the propagation of a disturbance in free space, the same way that sound is the propagation of a disturbance in air. In a disturbance, only the undulations of media propagate and not any particles of matter.
9. The speed of light depends entirely on the character of free space (classical vacuum), the same way that speed of sound depends entirely on the temperature, pressure and other characteristics of air.
10. Theory of relativity proceeds from the postulate that the speed of light is a constant for all frames of references. Therefore, the theory of relativity essentially considers free space (classical vacuum) to be an absolute.
11. Thus, all frames of reference in the theory of relativity operate within the absolute frame of reference represented by free space (classical vacuum).
[To be continued…]
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Please say what you mean by “free” space.
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From Vacuum:
Vacuum is space that is empty of matter. The word stems from the Latin adjective vacuus for “vacant” or “void”. An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure.[1] Physicists often discuss ideal test results that would occur in a perfect vacuum, which they sometimes simply call “vacuum” or free space, and use the term partial vacuum to refer to an actual imperfect vacuum as one might have in a laboratory or in space. The Latin term in vacuo is used to describe an object as being in what would otherwise be a vacuum.
I am surprised that Google doesn’t find this definition easily. That means this definition is no longer in common use.
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From dictionary:
“Also called (no longer in technical usage): vacuum a region that has no gravitational and electromagnetic fields: used as an absolute standard”
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Understood. That is extant physics. But our assertions that space is something and not nothing makes”free space” an oxymoron.
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I think that ‘free’ in free space means ‘free of matter’. It doesn’t mean the opposite of bound space.
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I have revised the above as follows:
NOTE: Here ‘free space’ refers to the ‘classical vacuum’ as found naturally in outer space.
1. The conclusion that speed of light is constant is arrived at by experimental results.
2. The speed of light is directly related to permittivity and permeability of free space.
3. Permittivity of space is a constant that relates to the amount of resistance encountered when forming an electric field in a classical vacuum.
4. Permeability of space is a constant that relates to the amount of resistance encountered when forming a magnetic field in a classical vacuum.
5. Maxwell’s equations use the constants of permittivity and permeability in describing how electric and magnetic fields are generated and altered by each other in free space.
6. The speed of light is the inverse of the square root of the product of permittivity and permeability.
7. Light is an electromagnetic wave that is made up of alternating electric and magnetic fields. These electric and magnetic fields appear to be disturbance in free space.
8. Thus, light appears to be a disturbance that propagates through free space, the same way that sound is a disturbance that propagates through air.
9. In a disturbance, only the undulations of media propagate outward from the point of disturbance. There is no mass propagating forward.
10. The speed of light depends entirely on the permittivity and permeability of free space (vacuum). This is analogous to how the speed of sound depends entirely on the characteristics of air, such as temperature, pressure.
11. Theory of relativity proceeds from the postulate that the speed of light is a constant for all frames of references. The speed of light, therefore, acts as an absolute for the theory of relativity.
12. Since the characteristics of free space determine the speed of light, free space acts as the absolute frame of reference for the theory of relativity.
13. Free space seems to be defined fully only when space and time are considered together as ‘space and changes in it. Regarded separately, space and time appear to be relative as shown by the theory of relativity.
14. Free space as ‘spacetime’ seems to represent the universe as a whole in an absolute sense.
15. Uniform velocity seems to be indistinguishable in spacetime. One cannot distinguish if one is moving at a slow or fast speed, or even at the speed of light when moving at a uniform velocity.
16. One can only sense a change in that velocity, as linear or angular acceleration.
17. That change is sensed in terms of a reaction, which resists that change. This resistance is called inertia. This inertia is also the same in all frames of reference.
18. Inertia expresses itself in terms of mass. Increased mass means increased resistance to acceleration.
19. Infinite increase in mass would mean infinite resistance to acceleration. This may occur when the relative speed wants to go from ’0′ to ‘c’ in no time.
20. The idea that mass of an object is infinity when it is moving at the uniform velocity of ‘c’ seems to be inconsistent if the object is experiencing no acceleration.
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Awesome direction. Please continue.
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I am continuing here:
https://vinaire.me/2013/08/28/space-inertia-mass-and-gravity-part-2/#comment-11228
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https://vinaire.me/2013/06/25/the-fifth-dimension/#comment-10379
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A tune looping in the mind may have some inconsistency about it that the mind is trying to resolve.
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Maybe so. Music has the effect of evoking great emotion within our species as well as sometimes other species. You may be right about the loop-back having to do with some inconsistency although sometimes the repeating riff can be pleasing and attractive as well. Possibly what is pleasing is the unpredicted sequence which would also be an “inconsistency” in that riff.
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Well, there is something fascinating about music for sure. But why would attention get stuck on a particular tune, so it keeps on repeating? Maybe it reminds one of something that is puzzling.
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https://vinaire.me/2013/06/25/the-fifth-dimension/#comment-10372
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Stressful moments seem to get stored in the mind in some form of chemical, which then takes time to disperse back out. But such dispersal requires the practice of mindfulness.
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That is a good way of looking at stressful moments. In addition, if one does not disperse or somehow equalize that “chemical” but rather is antagonized or further irritated by it then more of the irritating chemical may be manufactured by the body causing a “runaway” effect such as the “psychotic break.”
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Yes, that is the other side of the coin.
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https://vinaire.me/2013/06/25/the-fifth-dimension/#comment-10365
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That is an excellent observation. It shows that ‘I’ itself may be something “stored” when some limit is crossed. The ‘I’ tries to struggle with itself to no resolution. Resolution comes about only when mindfulness is practiced. Pure observation without resistance and without any assumptions is the key.
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Vinaire: Resolution comes about only when mindfulness is practiced. Pure observation without resistance and without any assumptions is the key.
Chris: And the “I” cannot be mindful as it is a part of the construct with which the mind identifies and identifies as itself. This is tricky ground and seems to be the fundamental mistake of Scientology which is to identify with the ego and to strengthen and crystalize that ego, become certain of that ego and to wrongly identify that ego as source of one’s experience when in fact it is no more than a filter through which to experience.
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Who or what is the wrong question to ask. It is the thought that is thinking.
Spacetime seems to be a very intriguing concept. There is no who or what that seems to apply to spacetime.
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Correct.
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https://vinaire.me/2013/06/25/the-fifth-dimension/#comment-10343
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Being mindful about consensus keeps one free from the loop of consensus that one may get stuck to.
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Consensus seems to be a “forced” abstraction which can never be truly valid. Consensus enforces a hope that an absolute can be arrived at because of recursive and self similar Nature. However, the identical same thing as the first thing never quite comes up – forever. It is like waiting at the slot machine for the three cherries to come up when in this model, they never will.
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Vinaire: Being mindful about consensus keeps one free from the loop of consensus that one may get stuck to.
Chris: Understanding the recursive and self-similarity of Nature is the key to this.
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Reality has nothing to do with consensus.
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To being mindful.
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Mindfulness is simply a way to approach reality, hopefully.
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https://vinaire.me/2013/06/25/the-fifth-dimension/#comment-10342
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My best learning comes from investigating the basics of any subject without taking anything for granted. I compare those basics with my experience.
I discard all consistencies and focus on the first inconsistency that I find. If that resolves quickly then I go to the next inconsistency. I do not move off an inconsistency until it resolves. I may go on looking around that inconsistency in wider circles, but I always come back to that inconsistency until it resolves.
This is much deeper form of auditing.
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Vin: This is much deeper form of auditing.
Chris: When I finally gave myself permission to look, I discovered what you are saying to be true. Everyone should give themselves permission to look.
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https://vinaire.me/2013/06/25/the-fifth-dimension/#comment-10380 about the suggestion of time as a medium
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I no longer think in terms of space as a medium, or time as a medium. I think in terms of spacetime as a medium.
Space is sort of a matrix. Time is sort of a change or sequence of states. Spacetime is something bigger, which has space and time as subsets. The speed of light, acceleration and inertia are directly the characteristics of spacetime and not of any frame of reference within it.
Planck’s constant shows the linear variation of Energy with frequency. The greater is the frequency, greater is the energy of the disturbance in space though the speed of disturbance remains the same. As energy is poured into the disturbance, the frequency increases and the wave-length shorten. Beyond a certain point the wavelength is so short that the modulations of electric and magnetic fields start to “stack up” on each other. This is like being accelerated or pushed beyond ‘c’. Additional energy poured beyond this limit seems to get stored as mass with the property of gravity.
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https://vinaire.me/2013/06/25/the-fifth-dimension/#comment-10330
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There is an overall reality of which all the ‘I’s are a part. Then there is reality created by an ‘I’ for itself. This personal reality is different from the original reality. If the personal reality is inconsistent with the original reality then there are going to be consequences in the form of unreality and delusion.
Now a consensus of many ‘I’s may try to substantiate a personal reality, such as, man never landed on the moon and it is all a conspiracy. To the degree this consensus reality is different from the original reality there would be a conflict. Two consensus realities may also be in conflict with each other. The solution would be not to worry about the original or absolute reality. Instead, get busy resolving one inconsistency after another using mindfulness. Sooner or later one would reach the original reality.
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