Some Definitions
- Wave
The periodic disturbance of a continuous medium that propagates with a fixed shape at a constant velocity. (Not very satisfactory, but let’s go with it for now)
- Wavelength
The distance between repeating units of a propagating wave
- Frequency
The number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time
- Amplitude
The magnitude of change in the oscillating variable, with each oscillation, within an oscillating system
- Harmonic
The components of a complex oscillation or wave whose frequencies are in exact multiples of the basic frequency.
- Resonance
The tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude at certain frequencies. The resonance frequency is approximately equal to the natural frequency of the system, which is the frequency of free vibrations.
- Standing waves
When waves of the same frequency are travelling in opposite directions and their nodes coincide, the resultant wave pattern is a stationary, resonant wave form with good stability (ref CW). The stability is not co-incidental because the force opposing a slight deviation from the pattern is real and effective. Depending on the resonant, harmonic stability of the new wave this tendency or force may be disrupted and may only temporarily be able to hold the wave form in place. The interesting thing about a standing wave is exactly the fact that it is standing… standing still. It does not propagate. To move it needs to have something overcome by an external force… hey, that is called inertia. This is an amazing characteristic because the constituent waves could be travelling at speed, yet the standing wave has a resonant power of it’s own to underpin its inertial stability.
Another feature of a standing wave is the fact that to separate itself from the background waves that formed it, to be independent really, it would have to re-use its energy in some sort of circular fashion. In other words it has to join its tail back to its head in some way. For a simple wave this would involve only the plane of the wave, but anything more complicated would be impossible to do in one plane only because the energy of the loop would always be lower if the third dimension was utilised. In other words, the wave would twist out of the plane in which it was formed and become a three dimensional object.
In the case of electromagnetic waves travelling at the speed of light through space in many directions it is quite a feat to contribute energy to a standing wave (standing still) for long. The fact remains that such a wave would be standing still. It is my contention that there exists a mechanism that gives this process legitimacy and in so doing it gives the standing wave autonomy which lasts as long as the immediate electromagnetic environment allows it to last. More of this under the headings of emission and also primordial synthesis.
Another type of standing wave occurs in the orbits of electrons around the nucleus. Imagine taking a string attached at the ends that has say three standing waves along the length of the string and then removing the vibrating string form its supports and looping the two ends to make a circle.
Like this:
This form of standing wave is the reason for the stability of the various orbits around the nucleus. We will address forces at a later stage but I would like to point out here that the maintenance of stability of the harmonic resonance in all these cases is a force in itself and the standing wave looped upon itself is the pattern the electron or electrons resonate within according to their energy levels. All these standing waves have inertia. This is merely a wave form that is standing still and the standing still gives it inertia. With regard to standing waves around a nucleus, we have in our mind this electron spinning around the nucleus at nearly the speed of light. In reality it is really the wave form that has taken on a particular pattern which obviously depends on the amount of energy it has withheld in its wave form. What is going around the nucleus is the wave of energy whose constituent energy packages are multiples of the electron’s energy. When we say that two electrons are in the same energy orbit it means that the standing wave has taken on a different shape due to the extra energy of the second (or third or fourth etc) electrons joining the party. They are not neatly missing each other in a stable twist like two dancers contorting to balance. More energy will merely change the form of the wave and in doing so represent a higher energy “orbit”.
- Electromagnetic waves
The electromagnetic spectrum is vast. When we define sections of the spectrum we denote a certain band of wavelengths to type of wave. This ranges from Gamma rays that have a wavelength shorter than one angstrom to radio waves longer than a kilometre. Visible light is only a tiny portion of this spectrum.
Electromagnetic waves have been described as self perpetuating waves of alternating electric and magnetic fields. The two fields are perpendicular to one another and also perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation, but each can be viewed as a sinusoidal wave in a single plane, their mutual creation and indeed perpetuation dependent on each other. Something like this:
I think the place to start is with the conventional view of the electromagnetic wave and perhaps my understanding of aspects thereof that may not be too conventional. I will refer to the minimum of formulae in this article, so bear with me while I describe only the bare essence of the three main equations relating to our discussion.
This Electromagnetic wave is a plane wave (exists in one plane) which travels in one direction and is made up of two separate but dependent waves, electric and magnetic. Let’s first look at one plane (conventionally the electric field component is taken as the plane of polarisation) of the wave on its own. It is a simple transverse wave in a single dimensional plane. I am using the term dimensional plane intentionally because the plane of the wave could of course be in any direction of three dimensional space, but let’s pretend for this exercise that this plane is the only dimension that exists for the wave. Let’s call this plane the xy plane like a piece of paper lying on a desk with the wave being drawn on it. Something like this:
It is significant that the second wave is perpendicular to the first because this second wave is on a plane that is protruding out of the page that we drew the first wave on. This means that the wave is now using a second dimension (two single dimensions) and both waves could still be travelling in any direction of our natural 3 dimensional space. By definition then I will refer to the electromagnetic wave as two perpendicular single dimensional waves. Note that each dimension is dependent on the other for propagation.
It is also significant that one of the “right hand rules” of electrodynamics determines that there is a force generated in the presence of an electric field which is perpendicular to both the electric and the magnetic field. This force according to the rule is thus in the direction of propagation. The size of the force depends on the size of the electric and magnetic fields. This fact becomes important when we start discussing Inflation and space creation.
In summary we now see an electromagnetic wave as two dependent single dimensional waves with the ability to propagate in any direction of a three dimensional space.
Electromagnetic waves are transverse waves. They also obey the principle of superposition and deletion which is the main property relating to the formation of Standing or Stationary waves which will be discussed at length in the section on Primordial Synthesis.
The property of resonance is key to the discussion as well and will constantly recur relating to the feature of stability of sub-atomic “particles”
This wave travels through “empty space” at the speed of light (c) This speed is dependent upon the density of the medium it is travelling through and the density of space is a major part of this paper as we will discuss later in depth. Just a naughty comment at this stage: there is actually no such thing as “empty space”
The interplay of its basic features of wavelength (λ) and frequency (ƒ) are related by the formula
- c = λ x ƒ
The frequency (ƒ) of any wave is determined by oscillations at the source (eg heat, light, x-ray etc) and measured as cycles per second. Let’s leave the different types of wave out of the discussion initially and confine our model to a single frequency. To maintain our sanity, this single frequency will have to represent all frequencies in our discussion.
Either wave (electric[E] or magnetic[B]) could have been used for this discussion. They are however intimately dependent upon one another. Their field relationship is determined by the formula
- E / B = c
The magnitude of these two fields is really the Amplitude (A) of the wave and is obviously perpendicular to the propagation direction of the wave. As we have discussed briefly, this property undergoes superposition and deletion like any transverse wave does, but we will come back to that fact later.
The amplitude (A) is related to the energy (E) the wave carries by the formula
E = ½ (µ∆x) ω2A 2 (Don’t worry…we won’t use this one!!!!)
The µ relates to the mass per unit length and ω (angular frequency) relates to the ƒ times the constant (2 π). Much too complicated. Let’s just say that
- E ≈ ƒ 2 A 2 times a constant
E is thus dependent on the frequency (ƒ) which as we said previously is determined by the source of radiation and the amplitude (A) which is the measure of “size” of the wave.
A photon is the smallest package or quantum of an electromagnetic wave and it’s energy is solely dependent on its frequency according to the formula
E = ħ ƒ (where ħ is Planck’s constant … but we won’t use this one either)
It must be noted here that a photon is a “particle” and although it has no weight it is responsible for the particle nature of light.
NO MORE FORMULAE !!!!!!!!!!!!!
