Science Concepts

Comment:  This is a brief in support for a series on UFOs. The science briefs are intended to prepare readers for the series and establish the view from a rational perspective.

In general, the scientific experience begins as one is somewhere strolling through the universe and stumbles upon some sort of Complex phenomenon or object. Out of curiosity, a scientific investigation commences to discern the Order behind the complexity. Once the investigation is completed, given the evidence and discovery, an ascertation is made about Origins of the phenomenon or object based on information already present. In short, the scientific experience deals with complexity and order only. Science is the rigorous effort to investigate complexity and order. Matters of Origin are for cosmology, philosophy, and theology. 

Scientist typically have personal cosmological, philosophical, and theological views. Sometimes those views affect the science of order and complexity. Michael Critchton points to this problem in his speech Aliens Caused Global Warming.  Additionally, claims made in cosmological, philosophical, and theological works can be reconciled with science to corroborate those claims as true or false. Hugh Ross and others attempt to perform this effort which will be discussed in the UFOs: An Alternative Look Series. 

The Scientific Language

Mathematics is the language of science. This results in some shared concepts about reality AND that which is NOT reality. On a high level, mathematics deals with four realms; the real, imaginary, complex, and surreal. 

The Real Realm


The natural realm that humans are the most comfortable with is the real. Mathematics attempts to describe the natural order through formulation or mathematical formulas. There are processes such as the Buckingham PI theroem used to take a natural phenomenon and describe them mathematically in an equation.


The Imaginary Realm


Radical negative one or the square root of negative one is the basis for the Imaginary realm. Radical negative one is most often symbolized as a "i". The usefulness of the imaginary is more for the engineer than scientist. Complex designs that are numerically engineered often occur in the imaginary realm and conformally mapped into the real for practical application. For example, the design of a transonic propeller that sweeps behind the shock wave. 


The Complex Realm


A combination of the real and imaginary compose the complex realm.  Again its usefulness is engineering more than science. 


The Surreal Realm


The surreal realm, being dream like or similiar to the real, is mostly conceptual and involves notions used in mathematical 'play' or foley to evaluate performance of formulas. Notions like infinite and randomness do not have a natural basis but are useful in mathematical foley. 

Chaos Theory

This theory is widely confused with the notion of randomness. Order and randomness are opposites of each other. Hence, randomness cannot have order or be described by mathematical formulas. Mathematics takes advantage of psuedo-randomness but has no means to formulate an equation for true randomness. A random event occurs only once and can never reoccur for a pattern would be established and this would become ordered. Order is structure, pattern, and basis of science. In science there is peer review and confirmation of the finds. Thus, scientific experiment relies on repeatable patterns to confirm the findings. Chaos Theory's fundamental hypothesis is that the universe is perfectly ordered but indeterminant. That is to remark that much of the universe is a roll of the dice or probabilistic. Rolling of a dice has only six possible outcomes of which one of them showing is a probability problem and not random.  Hence, the mathematical formula for probability is statisitically ordered. 

Chaos Theory makes use of mathematical formulas for patterns that occur naturally. The formulas that describe but do not predict natural patterns are called Fractals. The point Chaos Theory makes is that it denies randomness entirely. 

Physics Conventions

Many people hear about particles and strings in physics but have little grasp as to what these things really are all about. They are abstractions that represent a collective behavior physicists are observing. 

Particles, for example, in lay terms are generally thought of as soupy fields of local goop that collectively demonstrate a behavior. The physicists assign the concept of a particle to the field in order to conduct 'play' or foley with the behaviors. Consider love and hate. They are not tangible or empirically observable but we know they exist and have some general qualities. If love and hate are assigned to a love particle and a hate particle that resemble pool balls, we can assign the qualities of love and hate to the respective balls or particles. In this way, we can begin to explore their interactions.

Likewise, when dealing with harmonics and waveforms, they resemble an oscillating string. Recall as a child when you took a long rope or jump rope and shook the end such that a wave or bump travelled down the rope. This concept was taken and used in physics to describe the behavior of lightwaves and other waveforms.  The string is mathematical formulation of the harmonic state of the waveform.  Thus, there are innumerable strings possible. Edward Whitten used in M-Theory the most probable. 

The significance of strings is that under the Wave-Particle theory of light, somehow waveforms slam together in a process of compactness, that is still unknown, to form a particle. The Boson-Higgs particle is one attempt to understand this. The formation of a particle results in dimensionality of length, width, depth, and time. Hence, the formation of space-time.  The fascinating outcome of this is that the universe, space-time, is not infinite but instead bounded. That space-time comes into and out of existence probabilistically with the formation of these particles. The absence of particles is nonlocality or one dimension in which everything exists simultaneously at the same instance. The string ties these particles in the Planckian realm, the Quantum,  through the layers of reality (sub-atomis, atomic, meso-physical) to the Physical realm.

M-Theory Brief

Comment:  This is a brief in support for a series on UFOs. The science briefs are intended to prepare readers for the series and establish the view from a rational perspective.  By the end of this, I hope that readers have a functional understanding of the theory and concepts.

M-Theory

M-Theory has been  popularized in many movies such as Timeline, The Matrix, and many others. Hollywood took a creative license when investigating the many possibilities of the theory. Nonetheless, M-Theory is relatively new being introduced during 1997 by Physicist Edward Whitten who sought a unifying theory for the everything. The theory stunned the science community because of its well supported and demonstratable applicability. The meaning of M-Theory designation is just a serialized name for the theory to distinguish from other theories like G-Theory or Q-Theory. Scientists do not know what to call it yet.

Whitten in developing M-Theory, took the well establised equations of space-time, the theory of relativity, quantum loop theory of gravity, superstring theory, and others  into a mathematical relationship that demonstrated a ten dimensional universe with a mathematical error as a 11^th dimension. The error is generally thought of as insignificant and indicates the model may not be complete yet.  The underlying support for strings is that everything is in a natural resonance or vibrational state, known as harmonics, which is characterized by an oscillating string linking the quantum realm to the physical realm.

Conventions In Physics

Let us first consider some conventions used in physics. Many people hear about particles and strings but have little grasp as to what these things really are about. They are abstractions that represent a local grouping of collective behavior physicists are observing.

Particles generally appear in the Planckian realm at an order of magnitude of about 10^-30 meters. In lay terms, particles are generally thought of as soupy fields of local goop (not plasma fields as they occur at a higher order of magnitude) that demonstrate a common behavior. Physicists assign the concept of a particle to the field in order to conduct 'combinatory play' or foley with the behaviors. Consider love and hate. They are intangible and not empirically observable but we know they exist and have some general traits. If a love particle and a hate particle are assigned traits such that they resemble something like pool balls, then we can assign the qualities of love and hate to the respective particles. In this way, we can begin to explore their interactions.

Likewise, harmonics and waveforms resemble an oscillating string and can take on many other shapes. Please recall when as a child you took a long rope or string and shook the end such that a wave or bump travelled down the rope, this is the  concept of strings as used in physics. Strings describe the behavior of lightwaves, particle waves, and a variety of wave shapes.  The string is mathematical formulation of the harmonic state of the waveform. Thus, innumerable strings are possible. Edward Whitten used the most probable strings in formulating M-Theory which are a closed loop string as opposed to an open ended string.   

Harmonics and M-Theory Formulation

In M-Theory, strings are infinitely thin and run through the substance of space-time forming the 'fabric' of space time. The natural resonance of all things is a natural harmonic that requires a time basing association of the waveforms or strings representing the resonance. Looking at M-theory, the first four dimensions are space-time and the remaining six dimensions are natural but cannot be explored by humans directly. Let's look at some of these equations briefly to understand what is going on.

The equations for space-time are expressed as functions of time and annotated as X(t) for example. A is acceleration, V is velocity, and X₀ is the intitial displacement in space. The equations of space-time are:

X(t) = 1/2 At² + Vt + X₀
Y(t) = 1/2 At² + Vt + Y₀
Z(t) = 1/2 At² + Vt + Z₀

The dimensions are X, Y, Z and t or Time. In a simliar fashion the Theory of Relativity is developed into a function of time.  E = MC² is the Theory of Relativity that must be transformed into a function of time as the common point of reference. The equation for velocity is distance over time or distance as a function of time, D(t). Thus, the speed of light;   C = V(t)  where V(t) can be in any one of the first derivatives of the three spatial directions X(t), Y(t), or Z(t) or a combination of directions known as a vector as well as their formulas on the other side of the equal sign.  The equation becomes:

E(t) = M [ V(t) ]²

On a side note, many scientists hold the speed of light constant in order to make their theories work properly. However, there is evidence that the speed of light may vary. Theories indicate that the universe has been / is expanding. This has the effect of dilating time and subsequently affecting the speed of light. For example, relax a rubber band and put two marks one inch apart, name the span between the marks 1 second, then place the rubber band under tension. The marks spread apart making the distance between them greater but the definition between the marks remains one second. The dilation is related to the delta in the distance between the marks before and after tension. The universe is also said to be under tension of expansion forces counter by equal and opposite particle forces that want to draw the universe back to a singularity. 

The fifth dimension becomes energy, E(t), which includes three of the four natural forces and is now tied to space and time. Gravity is a sixth dimension as string's tension describes quantum gravity. While seemingly complicated this is the approach Whitten took. All these equations were based on time and used to formulate unified equation of reality. Common to linear algebra methods, a matrix of simultaneous equations was formed to solve the equations for various conditions and instances.  Hence, the movie The Matrix draws its dichotomy of reality (the red pill) or the matrix versus illusion (the blue pill) or the results produced by the matrix from this analogy.

Looking Deeper



Figure 1

Whitten went farther than we did here as he used 11 dimensional strings that tied the quantum to the physical in Superstring Theory. Please refer to Figure 1: Wave form Basics, in the following discussion. Note that vibrating strings can occur in 2 or more dimensions.  Velocity of a vibrating string is frequency. Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity. Additionally, vibrating strings' amplitude is associated to the energy in the system. Tension or stiffness in the string is associated with gravity. Time is associated with the period and wavelength of a string. For example, a second of time is one wavelength of Argon gas.  The remaining dimensions are related to the harmonics of vibrating strings and may be attributed to other natural dimensions as well. Time basing the equations is necessary in harmonics. The mathematical error consists of the eleventh dimension which is technically insignificant.  Whitten Discusses.

The significance of M-Theory is that it illustrated to scientists that the parts or pieces of the universe were well understood and science had been too close to the puzzle preventing them from seeing the picture being assembled. Many scientist equated the discovery to stepping back and looking at the whole elephant from a distance rather than up close and only seeing the individual components.

Subset Theories

When the ten dimensions of M-theory are conformally mapped into three dimensions to see what they look like the process reveals an infinite number of spheres called Worlds and large infinitely thin sheets known as membranes or Branes for short.  This model has become known as the Brane-World model of the universe. Scientist then hypothesize that the worlds (spheres) collide with each other or are slapped by the membranes flapping like a flag in the wind. These collsions between Worlds results in new universes that are merged together or bounce around like pool balls on a billard table. Meanwhile, a World slapped by a membrane, The Many Slap Theory, results in a reordering of the World or Universe. Such a slap from a membrane would be considered a Big Bang from within the universe.

There are many implications for M-Theory and it has some profound impacts on the human perception of reality and the human place in the cosmos.

I hope you enjoyed the read and gained some valuable insight into the theory. My goal was to communicate as best possible a complex concept. Please fell free to email me and let me know your thoughts. james.bogden@gmail.com. Thanks!