Cause And Effect

by
Vernon Brown
October 27, 2009

Most things in nature are connected by a sequence of events that we recognize as cause and effect. For at least a century now, we have abandoned that concept in the physical sciences. We seem to have abandoned the concept of cause and effect so that we can have a wide latitude in our guesses about nature. Since we are not constrained by the need for cause and effect our guesses can be as weird as we like. Maybe it is time to question this abandonment of cause and effect.

Lets review some of the basic things we know about nature and see if we might assign causes for the effects that we notice. When we do this we might get a better insight into how nature works. We might even discover that great principle that John Wheeler talked about. He said, "Some principle uniquely right and uniquely simple must, when one knows it, be also so obvious that it is clear that the universe is built, and must be built, in such and such a way and that it could not possibly be otherwise."

Planck's Constant:
Since the quantum is so pervasive in nature we might start by considering how come the quantum. We know it all started with Max Planck's observation that the amount of energy-time of each photon is a constant value. Consider that a photon is comprised only of electric and magnetic change. The total amount of this change over time is a constant. The electric and magnetic amplitude reached by the change is also a constant. We know this because amplitude is not needed to solve the equation. If the electric and magnetic amplitude reached by a photon could vary, that variation would be a factor in the energy-time of a photon. It is not a factor. So it is not needed in the equation that describes Planck's constant. E = hv contains only Planck's constant and the rate of change of the electric and magnetic fields that comprise a photon.

Now we have two constants. One, Planck's constant, is energy-time. The other, unnamed, is peak electric and magnetic amplitude; these are physical properties of space. Physical properties can be real causes. These unnamed physical properties of space, then, are the cause of Planck's constant. Planck's constant is the effect; the cause is the physical properties of space determined by the electric permittivity and the magnetic permeability of space. This is very important. We will show that these properties of space are also the cause of gravity.

So the cause of Planck's constant is a property of empty space that only allows a certain maximum amplitude of electric and magnetic force. We know from observation that all photons reach this maximum amplitude of potential force. We say potential because a photon can do no work and remain a photon.

Quantum Phenomena:
How come the quantum then is because empty space has limits on the amount of electric and magnetic amplitude it can support. These limits cause Planck's constant. These limits therefore cause the quantum nature of the universe. We have not invented anything new for this realization. We just noticed the obvious cause for a well known effect. But we only noticed it because we looked for a cause for the quantum effect.

So far as anyone knows, these limits only apply to photons. There is no reason we know about that other things would be quantized. So, Planck length, Planck time, etc, are meaningless even though we may assign a value to them. We can not apply this obvious cause for the quantum nature of the universe to other unrelated effects. So those other things must remain undetermined, and maybe nonexistent.

So the cause of all quantum phenomena is the same properties of empty space that cause Planck's constant. These properties of empty space force all photons to propagate with a fixed electric and magnetic amplitude.

Uncertainty:
Now we get to another well known effect, the uncertainty phenomena. There seems to be a built-in uncertainty governing nature. This uncertainty does not permit us to know both the momentum of an object and its position simultaneously. We can know either with great accuracy, but the better we know one the less we know the other. We can trace the cause of this uncertainty back to our inability to predict exactly where a photon or an electron will hit a target.

We know a photon is comprised of electric and magnetic change, and nothing else. Electric and magnetic change has the ability to induce change in other objects in their path. The induced change is also a change, which itself can induce change; so there is a back force. This back force can change the path of a photon that is interacting to induce change. The dynamics of this causes photons to affect a target at a slightly off-center location relative to a photon's path. An incoming photon does a little dance with electrons in the target and dynamically affects those that resonate with it. We can not know the dynamics of all the atoms near a photon's impact point. So we must be uncertain about the point's exact location. This off-center impact is the cause of uncertainty phenomena.

Relativity phenomena:
Relativity phenomena is the natural result of the construct of matter. We know that most of matter is composed of constituents that must always move at the invariant speed of light. Because of this movement must distort matter. Even with QM theory, that construct produces relativity phenomena in flat space time. However, to get the arithmetic to correctly predict observations, all of matter must be involved. The arithmetic does not work if there is something of matter that does not move at light speed at its most elemental level. But it only works in flat space-time. Relativity phenomena develops naturally only in flat space-time. It needs a special inertial frame that is at rest in space. The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation occupies that special inertial frame.

The shape and the time experience of matter must distort in order to move. The shape distorts by contracting in the direction of movement. This is because the constituent particles must move at the speed of light relative to the fixed frame. They must bunch up to stay together. The time experience of matter must slow when matter moves because photons that comprise atomic components must travel a greater distance to complete the patterns they occupy within the matter. The repetition rate of atomic patterns is the arbiter of time. So the time experience of matter in motion must slow.

It is no coincidence that our measurements of the speed of light are exactly the same in any inertial frame. That is a consequence of the construct of matter. It can not be otherwise when we consider that matter is itself made of light. It is a simple consequence of the arithmetic. The Lorentz transforms describe how matter must distort based upon its construct. So we know that relativity phenomena is real. The cause of relativity phenomena is that the most elemental constituents of all physical reality must always move at the invariant speed of light.

Gravity:
The most elemental thing we know that both responds to gravity and produces gravity is the photon. All massive objects consist mostly of photons, even in QM theory. So maybe it is the photons that provide all gravitational phenomena. This must be so for any photon-only theory because that is all there is to any physical reality. So lets examine the make up of a photon and look for a gravity-responsive and gravity-creating mechanism.

A photon consists of two points of electric and magnetic change. Surrounding the points are fields that extend spatially outward. The fields diminish in amplitude as the square of distance. At a very short distance away from the photon's central path, the fields are too weak to interact with matter. So the fields are invisible to matter and matter is invisible to the fields. The fields are free to permeate through matter just as if the matter was not there.

These diminished photon fields permeate the universe. A photon moving through the fields senses the minute electric and magnetic amplitude of the fields. The amplitude of the diminished fields contribute toward the constant amplitude of the photon. The central points of photons reach their constant amplitude with the help of the diminished fields. They thus reach their constant amplitude at an offset toward increasing field strength of the diminished fields. The result of this is that the path of the photon is slightly bent toward the direction of increasing field strength of the diminished fields.

Matter:
We know that a photon trapped in a mirrored box contributes to the overall mass of the box-photon system. So we can know with considerable certainty that a photon trapped in a local area by any means will appear as mass. We know also that a photon is comprised of fields of changing electric and magnetic amplitude. The changing fields are symmetrical with a positive half cycle and a negative half cycle that exactly balance. Because the fields balance, a photon appears neutral. But this can only be true when a photon moves in a straight line.

When the path of a photon is bent the fields can not be symmetrical. The area outside the bend is greater than the area inside the bend. The electric and magnetic fields that drive the photon through space can not be symmetrical in the bend. This asymmetry presents itself as electric charge. This electric charge has an additional action that bends the path of a photon more. The amount of the additional bending of the path is equal to the original bending. The result is a bend radius of twice the amount. So starlight paths bent by the sun's gravity are bent twice as much as the sun's gravity alone can account for.

There is a direct relationship between the bend radius of the photon's path and the amplitude of the residual electric charge. The tighter the bend, the greater the residual electric charge. This electric charge acts as positive feedback that tightens the bend radius of a photon's path. In addition to this positive feedback, there is another force that can act to help trap a photon in a local pattern.

Resonance is a very powerful force in electromagnetic phenomena. A photon can resonate with itself when a complete loop forms in one wavelength. Then we have two forces at work to trap the photon in the pattern. We have the positive feedback of the electric charge and the photon's own self resonance. At just the right frequency, a stable electron or positron may be formed.

So the cause of matter is positive feedback and photon self resonance. The feedback comes from the bent path. The self resonance happens when a complete loop forms in one wavelength.

Nuclear Dynamics:
Consider that a proton is comprised of three photon shells in accordance with the Square-Of-The-Shells rule below. Shell 2 is positively charged on the outside and negatively charged on the inside. In accordance with the rule, the charge of the electron is taken as unity. The electric charge amplitude of the proton's shells follow the rule. The charge amplitude on a neutron's outer shell is then about 2.54992 times the value of the electrons charge amplitude. Even though the charge amplitude at the surface is greater than the electric charge amplitude at an electron's surface, the amplitude is exactly the same as that of an electron when sensed from any distance greater than an electron's radius. This is because the sensed amplitude diminishes with the square of distance; the charge at the shell surface increases as the square of distance. So the charge amplitude at the surface of shell 2 is about 6.50209 and the charge amplitude at the surface of shell 3 is about 42.27723 as great as that of an electron. Again, any sense of this amplitude at any distance greater than an electrons radius will show its value as exactly equal to that of an electron.

So we have four forces in play when two protons merge. The value of the forces add up to the value of the strong nuclear interaction taken in terms of electron charges. Protons may merge when excited enough for the outer shells 2 to push past each other. The inner two proton shells, shell 3 and shell 4 are then trapped inside of shells 2.

The dynamics of this entrapment are obvious, and fit observations exactly. When forcing a trapped proton out of its trap, the forces at first increase. Opposite charges repel as the two shells 3 approach closer to the entrapping shells 2. The forces will also increase when the two protons are compressed, again, exactly matching observations.

So, the obvious cause of atomic nuclear dynamics is the electric charges on shells 2 and shells 3 of the proton.