Friday 31 December 2010

nooks and crannies ..

nooks and crannies ..

"All other colors will have wavelengths that are not exact multiples of the oil-slick thickness at that location, and they will not add up constructively. This familiar phenomenon is termed "interference" and is a signature property of waves."

the deluge of thoughts that came into mind while reading these two pages, p.24-25 out of the book of James Kakalios "The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics"

.. is inconceivable which at first glance it shouts out that it should not merit a further look, should be dismissed as incoherent blurting out of a play of connecting disparate and distant thoughts that barely have a common ground, lacking the obvious commonsensical approach.

Jumping back and forth, from so disparate and distant concepts. Each one on its own merit.

Wavelength, where waves meet up with ..distance? Length? Position? Matter? Objects? Attribute depth, height, width to our world ..distance is assumed by the speed the wave travels, firms up in our mind the sense of distance and by that the depth of our world from familiar, our immediate surroundings to the out-worldly distant, to the edge of the universe as is surmised by the cosmic microwave background radiation.

The universe itself is played out in the minds of people like a child's toy which despite its correctness or not, forces the mind to adjust its outlook to what it sees. And the mind sees, what the eyes see, the 'constructive' quality, out of the interference of waves, the essence. What underpins how the world appears to us.

Merely based on the fact, of the way enters into the minds of people, the perception apparent, forces the mind to make sense accordingly. Constructed out, of in-phase waves, that denotes existence, and when waves do not interfere constructively, that includes all other parts within their total spectrum of their phase, non-existent. A digital approach in the way we observe the universe. The 0 and 1, existence and non-existence, played out by waves. De Broglie waves.

Our notions of volume, dimensions, space 'constructed' out of the wave interference. Re-arrange the concepts associated with the previous outlook to accommodate the newly found notions. Notions of branes, our entire universe contained in paper-thin sheets, planes cross-interacting with one another.

.. an incomprehensible task, formidable

.. tries and tests the mind, goes beyond the wildest imagination

... seeing our surroundings under a new light

Saturday 18 December 2010

Frozen Universe. Time traversed in a similar manner as space is.

"This means that the future can never be predicted in all its details, and that the future of the Universe is not irredeemably fixed."

The thought just crossed my mind, at what advantage point can a human individual assert such notion. Whether the notion 'future' bears any relevance, assists in fathoming 'Universe' and Nature as such.

Why not, since its inception the Universe expanded, not only by its space-like components but, its time-like components also. The idea of a frozen universe brought forth as human individuals started contemplating on it. And time as such, only traversed in the same way as space is traversed from one end to the other.

Time a continuum not different than space. Future, present and past merely a human condition.

While these thoughts brought to bear in this haphazard post, a lapse of concentration, one way to call such act, led me in. As if my search to know, the closure required by the thoughts on this subject, drove me in a furtive look on something I pondered in the past, and got me hooked. Supplement, originary lack and invagination. Is it what it goes around here? Supplementation involved in the notion of time the human mind has in store?

Supplement, the ".. inessential extra added to something complete in itself." The notion of time, the 'inessential extra', its past, future, present attributes stripped out completely, leaving out time bare to stand on its ..own feet, then what is left? What time stand-out as different than space? Then why not being traversed in a similar manner as space is?

Dimensionality? The familiar of space, attributed in a similar manner for time? And the familiar time attributes of future, present and past be looked at from the viewpoint of the dimensionality attributes of space. And the space orthogonal perspective being carried on, on time. To make sense out of the notion of past, future and present as orthogonal to each other. And even further, whatever applies for the attributes of time to be carried over and be applied for the attributes of space. The arrow of time device revised? Attributed with the orthogonality apparent to space dimensions.

Space and time separate, and time not seen as another dimension added to space. The notion of spacetime ..un-manageable? Nonsensical?

An image of a frozen universe?



Taken from space.com post, depicting the entire history of the universe. The mind enters anywhere in that vast expanse, narrowed down to the few centimetres it occupies on the screen. Plays out all sorts of stories as it traverses time.

A playground for the mind to delve. Consciousness fulfilled.

Monday 13 December 2010

Cosmic calculator. Irrational numbers, precision faulters, spawn chaos.

"It is impossible for nature herself to 'know' the state of the Universe to the required precision."

In John Gribbin's "Q is for Quantum, Particle Physics from A to Z", entry for 'Chaos'

Precision and predictability. Predicting the outcome a certain behaviour in a system would lead to, branding a behaviour as unpredictable or not. Leading to chaos or order, the eternal conundrum. Precise calculations required of the state in a system, the parametric descriptors of the state, the system is, that define the conditions prevailing in the system. Parameters as quantities to be measured, assigned to be completed by a number-crunching entity, a calculator, hand-held or not, which its operators employ to produce a value which would feed into their formulas describing functions defining future states of systems under observation.

Nature herself employs a similar, but attuned to its overwhelming size, cosmic calculator. Its role to achieve a similar feat, that the human individual counterparts attempt to elucidate observed systems states, discerning their lapse into chaos or not.

Cosmic calculator, emphasized entity to produce the numbers at a cosmic scale dealing with infinities that will be fed into the laws of nature to determine the fate of the universe in every time scale possible, envisaged, imagined.

A tool employed in understanding the workings of nature, the notion of position the meaning conferred and the devise of numbers to ascertain such meaning, the relationships existing between quantities expressed as parameters as if nature herself relies upon the notions human individuals invented to make meaningful nature to themselves.

Human individuals in their efforts to understand nature, their methods employed mirroring nature's own workings, out of the same blueprint according to the law of self-similarity. Nature herself is unable to confer the precision required, amenable to predictability, predictability the essence of evolution in a cosmic scale. Nature attempts to predict the outcome of the laws is endowed with, predictability determines the very structures favoured by the laws themselves. And nature runs into trouble as she is faced with a daunting task even for an entity as mighty as her. Precision evades her in the face of irrational numbers.

"To take just one simple example, known to the Ancient Greeks, the very concept of labelling the points on a straight line is an approximation to the truth. To label every point on a line (no matter how short the line is) you would need an infinite number of numbers. In the interval from 0 to 1, many of the points can be expressed in terms of the familiar fractions, such as 1/2 or 1/4 (or by less familiar fractions, such as 137/731). But some of the points can only be represented by 'irrational' numbers which cannot be expressed as the ratio of two integers in a fraction, and which require an infinite number of digits after the decimal point in order to be described fully."

An infinite number of digits, precision evaded, predictability un-achievable, unpredictable behaviour, chaos itself prevailing. In essence systems at that breakpoint separate into chaotic and non-chaotic behaviour. For what a position stabilises into a halt, a stop, a whole fraction, such a point provides an anchor for the state of the system to materialise. Its linear evolution becomes possible, a discernible pattern emerges. For any other position where its precision is impossible due to the appearance of irrational numbers in the presented 'solutions', confers unpredictability, system prevailing behaviour chaotic.

Fibonacci numbers, their implication in chaos, their involvement in the make-up of the irrational solutions might raise notions about their implied involvement.

Critical values of defining parameters in a system, the points where parameter relationships are defined by solutions running into the realm of irrational numbers. Precision affected, predictability compromised, chaotic behaviour ensues.

Chaotic behaviour ends, as the device of cosmic calculator, in running through the irrational number calculated provides a solution amenable to states involved, order emerges.