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General Discussion & Feedback => Radio Show & Podcast Feedback => Topic started by: thedoc on 16/10/2015 22:50:01
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Vijval Nataraja asked the Naked Scientists:
Is my theory correct?
How Einstein was Wrong about E=MC2
Einstein made three basic mistakes in his interpretation of the E=MC2 equation. Einstein's first mistake with E=MC2 was to take a simple equation and then try to interpret it with two contradictory and paradoxical ideas of mass and energy.
In the general interpretation, kE=MC2 defines the relationship between mass and kinetic energy. This means that when a body of mass is decelerated it loses mass and energy and when it is accelerated it gains mass and energy. This mass increase/decrease for all matter is proportional to each body's kinetic energy relative to a common position of rest for all matter. In this interpretation of E=MC2, energy and mass coexist together. When a body is accelerated to a given velocity, the kinetic energy inherent in that velocity contributes to overall mass of the body. One Joule has a mass of 10,-17 kg and a kilogram of mass weighs 1017 Joules. Here their is no conversion of matter to energy. While a Joule is a quantity of energy it is also a quantity of mass.
A single Joule of mass and energy is at the same time very small and very large. It takes 1014 joules of mass just to weigh a single gram but a one Joule photon would be a formidable event indeed. It would have an energy 1,000,000,000,000 times greater than a typical X-ray photon. A one Joule photon could not be produced in the laboratory with even the most powerful of accelerators. The only place where such photons could be found would be among the most powerful of the cosmic rays.
Moving bodies contain both Joules of kinetic energy and Joules of kinetic mass contained in that energy. When a body is decelerated its kinetic mass decreases as it is slowed and its kinetic energy is lost in the deceleration process.
Einstein refused to believe in deceleration as a meaningful concept that could be differentiated from acceleration to establish a position of absolute rest because the mass changes caused by motion cannot be measured locally.
Einstein's Second Mistake with E=MC2
Einstein's second mistake with his equation was in his failure to realize that the primary meaning of E=MC2 is that it defines the mass of the photon as the truest measure of mass.
Out of convention and with no experimental verification, Einstein arbitrarily declared the photon to be a massless particle. Einstein used Planck’s Constant to make the transformation between the mass of an atom and the energy of a massless photon. By failing to give the photon mass, he was unable to divide Planck's constant into its component parts h=MλC. Planck's constant is equal to the mass of a photon times its wavelength times the speed of light.
Ignoring the mass of the photon, completely changes the nature of E=MC2 from the previous interpretation. In this case, matter still contains kinetic energy that has mass, with the exception that the kinetic energy of the photon has no mass.
If Einstein would have allowed the photon its fair share of the mass, then there would be no case where mass is converted into energy. Mass has energy that can be measured and energy has mass that can be weighed. Mass and energy are two sides of a coin and can't be separated into the mass of matter and the energy of photons. Mass and energy are the two primary parameters of both matter and photons. One cannot exist without the other. There is no such thing as the long cherished metaphysical idea "pure energy". There is only pure "mass-energy".
Einstein wanted to believe that "matter" could be converted into energy (photons) at a time when he didn't even know about antimatter. This cannot happen. In the case where an electron and positron annihilate completely into photons, it is not only matter but also antimatter that is being converted to photons. To make a photon requires an equal quantity of positive matter (positron) and negative matter (electron). There is no way to convert ordinary matter into photons except in the extremely small quantities produced by atomic radiation.
When photons are produced by atoms they are made from equal pieces of positive matter (proton) and negative matter (electron). Neither a proton nor an electron can produce a photon by itself. In the Living Universe, a photon is the result of a joint effort between a proton and an electron with each contributing an equal amount of their mass and energy to make the photon.
Einstein is responsible for the popular ideas among the general public and even some scientists, that ordinary matter has the potential to be converted into enormous amounts of energy. This idea is simply not true. Photons can only be produced by the annihilation of matter and antimatter and the universe seems to contains almost no antimatter that could be combined with its matter to produce energy. The energy contained within matter is in a two lock box and we only have one key.
The universe is filled almost exclusively with positive matter (protons) and negative matter (electrons). When these two particles couple together to form a hydrogen atom, they emit a series of photons in a process that begins very much like the annihilation between a positron and electron. However, this process is very short lived and can only produce photons with a total energy equal to hydrogen's ionization energy of 13 electron volts. In contrast, the mass-energy of a proton and electron is about one billion electron volts. Both the proton and the electron lose equal amounts of mass to the emitted photons as they drop down into the ground state where the process stops and the atom becomes stable.
Einstein's third mistake with E=MC2
Einstein failed to understand that all photons travel at C through the same inertial reference frame and not just relative to observers. Einstein made the speed of light relative to the observer's frame. It is true, as Einstein claimed, that all observers will measure the speed of light to be (c) in any frame. However this does not mean that they are all measuring the same exact quantity. Capital C is the velocity of photons relative to photon rest and small c=C /-v is the speed that photons travel relative to moving observers. Due to mass changes in the moving observer's measuring devises, c=C -v always come out to have the same value.
Einstein made this assumption of relative motion not because he could prove it but because no one disprove it. The very nature of the accelerometer and the Doppler effect make it impossible to measure the difference between an acceleration and a deceleration or between motion and rest. Just because you can't measure absolute rest doesn't mean it can’t exist.
Einstein's idea of relative motion for matter cannot be reconciled with the absolute motion of photons. If photons move with absolute motion, then the motion of matter must also be absolute. M=E/C2 defines a body of matter's excess mass associated with its absolute motion through rest. When a body of matter is accelerated to any velocity (v) relative to this frame, its mass increases with its kinetic energy KE=MC2. At a velocity of about 86% of the speed of light, a body's mass is doubled with a kinetic mass that is equal to its rest mass.
Einstein's Failure to Understand Deceleration
The mass increase/decrease effect of motion on matter has to occur within a single universal reference frame for all matter. Just as photon motion occurs within a single frame, the inertial motion of matter must occur within the same frame.
If this were not so, then all protons and all electrons would not have identical masses in a given reference frame. Since matter gains mass when it is accelerated, it must also give up that mass when it is decelerated. Any change in a body's motion must result in either an absolute deceleration, that decreases its mass or an absolute acceleration, that increases its mass.
When we compare the masses of a large number of protons we find them to be identical. Here, it must be realized that these protons may have had substantially different masses for much of their histories. Yet, as they were accelerated and decelerated to the frame of our measuring device, we find their masses to be identical. If it were possible for different particles of matter to move relative to different absolute reference frames then they could not have identical masses in any given frame.
Even though the proton may have a different mass in each reference frame, it will be measured to have the same value in all. This is because the mass changes caused by the proton's motion induce changes in the mass and time standards of our measuring devices. Because of this, it is extremely difficult to experimentally establish the location of the absolute rest frame. However, the observation of the anisotropy of the photons of the 2.7 °CBR provides a readily apparent position for the true and absolute rest frame of the Living Universe.
We can measure our own absolute motion to be approximately 375 km/sec in the general direction of the constellation Leo. This increases the total mass of our individual bodies by only about 1/4 gram. This increase in mass might seem small until we realize that this amount of mass represents as much kinetic energy as an atomic bomb. Even though this enormous kinetic energy of our bodies is real, there is no way to tap or even detect the several kilotons of kinetic energy contained in the absolute motion of everyone’s individual body.
Einstein's Mistake with the Doppler Effect
The Doppler effect allows us to very accurately measure the relative motion between a source and observer but by its very nature it does not allow us to determine the absolute motion of either. Einstein's mistake was to conclude from the Doppler effect that motion itself was intrinsically relative and not just hidden from the view of observers. Einstein failed to believe in a fixed frame that connected all forms of motion. However, with a more careful look at the Doppler effect, one must conclude that a common absolute motion for all photons must exist. Photons provide the ultimate example of absolute motion since the evidence virtually proves that all photons move at exactly C within the same inertial reference frame. Einstein must have concluded from the Doppler effect that photons have no intrinsic wavelengths as they travel through space and that until they are measured there is no difference between a gamma-ray photon and a visible light photon.
For an extreme example of this, consider an observer traveling in a spaceship at a velocity of .999999 C from the earth to Alpha Centuari. Such extreme velocity would cause the observer to measure Doppler shifts of between about Z = 1000 and Z = -1000.
Gamma-ray photons coming from earth would be measured aboard the ship to be visible light photons and visible light photons from Alpha Centuari would be measured as Gamma-ray photons. The temperature of the 2.7 ° CBR in the direction of Alpha Centauri would be measured to be 2700 °K and only .0027 °K in the direction of Earth. Even at this high velocity the 2.7CBR would maintain the proper blackbody intensity and distribution curves for the temperatures measured.
In the Living Universe, a photon must have an absolute intrinsic wavelength as it travels at C through space relative to the photon rest frame. That photon is then Doppler shifted to some other virtual wavelength by the absolute motion of an observer.
What do you think?
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E = mc2 is so wrong, in fact, that we generate 20% of the world's electricity from this ridiculous equation, and I use it at work to take pictures of people's insides!
Fortunately my photons have no mass: it would require the entire universe to be converted to energy to propel a massive photon at the speed of light, and a bit of x-ray film wouldn't stop it.
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Vijval Nataraja asked the Naked Scientists:
Is my theory correct?
How Einstein was Wrong about E=MC2.
What do you think?
I think the problem is misunderstanding relativity and the concepts of rest mass and relativistic mass.