The Relativity Series Begins Under Cosmic Puzzles

Relativity Simplified?

The past masters of Classical Physics determined that there was some barrier that had to be considered for explanations of our universe to be accurate. Some little something that only was significant a certain times, velocities, densities, temperatures etc. Everything in physics made sense, but only to certain points, then descriptions tended to fall apart. Something was missing.

Einstein determined that the ultimate barrier was the speed of light, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity, mass for example, approaches infinity as its velocity approaches the speed of light. The theory had to be separated into special relativity, for atomic particles and general relativity for most applications of sufficient mass. A photon traveling at the speed of light obviously does not have infinite mass, as is true for electrons and all the subatomic particles. There must be a difference.

The CERN particle accelerator experiments attempted to more accurately measure the speed of subatomic particles, neutrinos, and unexpectedly, found that their particle was moving faster than the speed of light. Actually, it only appeared to be moving faster than light. The timing of the release and capture of the neutrino was measured via GPS satellites orbiting the Earth. These satellites are moving the escape velocity of Earth’s gravity and due to chance, one of the satellites was moving toward the release point from the capture point at an angle sufficient to cause a Doppler shift in the measurement. That is yet another proof of the theory of Relativity, but which one, Special or General? Perhaps both?
Unlike the astrophysical proof of relativity, the CERN results are much closer to home. Right in our backyard, we can test the theory of relativity any time we wish.

This may be ho hum news for many, but it is pretty exciting if you happen to dabble in theoretical physics. Why? Because relativity is the sum of all barriers, light speed is just the biggest.

The speed of sound is a common barrier. Not just the first speed of sound, but the second speed of sound and probably the third ad infinium to the light speed barrier. That would mean that the theories of General and Special relativity may be combined into the Law of Relativity. That would be an enormous simplification of general physics, ground breaking!

So my excitement over the CERN discovery may be a touch more than the average Joe Six Pack’s excitement. The first point is that this discovery partially validates this simple relationship, dF/dT=4alphaF/T, where F is energy flux, T is temperature in K, and alpha if the relative coefficient of flux in a media. The little d’s being the change of F with respect to the change of T.

By expansion, dF/dT=4(aF+bF+cF-…..+nF)/T, the summation of energy flux allowing for relativistic considerations divided by the initial temperature is equal to the change in F with respect to the change in T, simplification of the Stefan-Boltzmann equation that applies to all energy flux not just electromagnetic energy. That is amazing if physics is one of your hobbies. It could redefine how we understand the big universe and the small universes of atoms. Exciting stuff!

Since this is all new, I will be starting a new series of posts on what is a fascinating subject to me. I started a new lable, Cosmic Puzzles, a while ago and this series of posts will be under that lable.