Instantaneous Action At A Distance In Modern Physics

The so-far unanswered question of whether the movements of distance-separated objects are correlated in the way quantum physics requires or whether, according to Einstein, they can influence one another only by mechanical agencies travelling between them at speeds limited to that of light. It is to that still unanswered question that this present compilation of papers is addressed. The editorial approach is unusual in that in order to break the current conceptual deadlock and to encourage true innovation they have solicited inputs which are multidisciplinary. This open-ended venture is therefore perhaps more in line with what was once called Natural Philosophy than with what is currently known as 'Physics'. This is something of a departure for those who say that Physics no longer has anything to do with Philosophy. For there are physicists who believe that their predecessors have accomplished all the really important conceptual work on interpreting natural phenomena, so that there is no longer any call for radical revision in that direction. This leads to a constricted form of the discipline in which the purpose of all observation and experimentation is seen as simply to collect more and more information and fit it to conceptions which are traditionally 'cut and dried'. The emphasis is thus on presenting informed and carefully considered descriptions of natural phenomena, economizing as far as possible on interpretations in terms of entities which turn out to be no more than speculative.

Long-listed for the 2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award “An important book that provides insight into key new developments in our understanding of the nature of space, time and the universe. It will repay careful study.” —John Gribbin, The Wall Street Journal “An endlessly surprising foray into the current mother of physics' many knotty mysteries, the solving of which may unveil the weirdness of quantum particles, black holes, and the essential unity of nature.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time: nonlocality-the ability of two particles to act in harmony no matter how far apart they may be. It appears to be almost magical. Einstein grappled with this oddity and couldn't come to terms with it, describing it as "spooky action at a distance." More recently, the mystery has deepened as other forms of nonlocality have been uncovered. This strange occurrence, which has direct connections to black holes, particle collisions, and even the workings of gravity, holds the potential to undermine our most basic understandings of physical reality. If space isn't what we thought it was, then what is it? In Spooky Action at a Distance, George Musser sets out to answer that question, offering a provocative exploration of nonlocality and a celebration of the scientists who are trying to explain it. Musser guides us on an epic journey into the lives of experimental physicists observing particles acting in tandem, astronomers finding galaxies that look statistically identical, and cosmologists hoping to unravel the paradoxes surrounding the big bang. He traces the often contentious debates over nonlocality through major discoveries and disruptions of the twentieth century and shows how scientists faced with the same undisputed experimental evidence develop wildly different explanations for that evidence. Their conclusions challenge our understanding of not only space and time but also the origins of the universe-and they suggest a new grand unified theory of physics. Delightfully readable, Spooky Action at a Distance is a mind-bending voyage to the frontiers of modern physics that will change the way we think about reality.

Advances the debate on unmediated instantaneous action and correlation at a distance. This is a coherent collection of contributions, by an international group of scholars, from a series of conferences held in Wales.

This book deals with the two fundamental subjects of electromagnetism. It is a useful text for courses in electromagnetism, electrical circuits, mathematical methods of physics, and the history and philosophy of science. It covers how to calculate force between two current carrying circuits, and net force on a part of a closed circuit. The calculation of the mutual inductance between two circuits and self-inductance of a single closed circuit is also described. Experiments explain the main expressions of Ampere and Grassmann. A must to help deepen the knowledge of the mind of any student of science.

The Symposium entitled: Causality and Locality in Modern Physics and As tronomy: Open Questions and Possible Solutions was held at York University, Toronto, during the last week of August 1997. It was a sequel to a similar sym posium entitled: The Present Status of the Quantum Theory of Light held at the same venue in August 1995. These symposia came about as a result of discussions between Professor Stanley Jeffers and colleagues on the International Organizing Committee. Professor Jeffers was the executive local organizer of the symposia. The 1997 symposium attracted over 120 participants representing 26 different countries and academic institutions. The broad theme of both symposia was the enigma of modern physics: the non-local, and possibly superluminal interactions implied by quantum mechanics, the structure of fundamental particles including the photon, the reconciliation of quantum mechanics with the theory of relativity, and the nature of gravity and inertia. Jean-Pierre Vigier was the guest of honour at both symposia. He was a lively contributor to the discussions of the presentations. The presentations were made as 30-minute lectures, or during an evening poster session. Some participants did not submit a written account of their presentation at the symposium, and not all of the articles submitted for the Proceedings could be included because of the publisher's page limit. The titles and authors of the papers that had to be excluded are listed in an appendix.

This is a book about the history of the science of inertia. Nobody denies the existence of the forces of inertia, but they are branded as “fictitious” because they do not fit smoothly into modern physics. Named by Kepler and given mathematical form by Newton, the force of inertia remains aloof because it has no obvious local cause. At the end of the 19th century, Ernst Mach bravely claimed that the inertia of an object was the result of its instantaneous interaction with all matter in the universe.Many other well-known physicists, including Aristotle, Galileo, Descartes and Einstein, are shown to have tackled this difficult subject. The book also concentrates on inertia research in the 20th century, taking place under the shadow of general relativity, which is seen as uncomfortable with Mach's principle. A Newtonian paradigm, based on action-at-a-distance forces, is discussed throughout the book, allowing the revival of Mach's principle as the only coherent explanation of the inertia forces which play such an important role in the laboratory and in the cosmos.

This is a book about the history of the science of inertia. Nobody denies the existence of the forces of inertia, but they are branded as OC fictitiousOCO because they do not fit smoothly into modern physics. Named by Kepler and given mathematical form by Newton, the force of inertia remains aloof because it has no obvious local cause. At the end of the 19th century, Ernst Mach bravely claimed that the inertia of an object was the result of its instantaneous interaction with all matter in the universe. Many other well-known physicists, including Aristotle, Galileo, Descartes and Einstein, are shown to have tackled this difficult subject. The book also concentrates on inertia research in the 20th century, taking place under the shadow of general relativity, which is seen as uncomfortable with Mach''s principle. A Newtonian paradigm, based on action-at-a-distance forces, is discussed throughout the book, allowing the revival of Mach''s principle as the only coherent explanation of the inertia forces which play such an important role in the laboratory and in the cosmos. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: All Matter Instantaneously Senses All Other Matter in the Universe (392 KB). Contents: All Matter Instantaneously Senses All Other Matter in the Universe; Johannes Kepler OCo The Astronomer Who Coined the Word Inertia; Free Fall OCo A Hardly Believable Story of Science; The Cartesian Interlude OCo A Novel Cosmology; Newton''s Force of Inertia OCo The Basis of Dynamics; A Century of Consolidation OCo The Early Practitioners of Newtonian Dynamics; Mach''s Magic Principle OCo The Unique Inertial System; Albert Einstein OCo Inertia Obscured by Gravitation; Inducing Inertia OCo An Electromagnetic Analogy; Retarded Action at a Distance OCo A Short Lived Misnomer; Clock Confusion in the 20th Century OCo The Connection Between Inertia and Timekeeping; Machian Inertia and the Isotropic Universe OCo A New Force Law. Readership: Students, academics, physicists, engineers and general readers interested in Newtonian mechanics."

Particle Physics and High Energy Physics have stagnated since the early 1970s. Now, the underlying principle of reductionism ? so sacred to twentieth-century physics ? is itself being questioned. This book examines these tumultuous developments that are leading to a paradigm shift and a new horizon for Physics.Presenting the new paradigm in fuzzy spacetime, this book is based on some 100 papers published in peer-reviewed journals including Foundations of Physics, Nuovo Cimento and The International Journal of Modern Physics (A&E), as well as two recently published books, The Chaotic Universe (Nova Science, New York) and The Universe of Fluctuations (Springer). The work had predicted correctly in advance epoch-turning observations, for example, that the Universe is accelerating with a small cosmological constant driven by dark energy when the prevalent line of thinking was the exact opposite. Similarly, the prediction of a minimum thermodynamic residual energy in the Universe has also been realized more recently. Further to a unified description of gravitation and electromagnetism via fluctuations, several other features are presented in complete agreement with experiments, in sharp contrast to the present ideas which are neither verifiable nor disprovable.