Galu, there is no proof this phenomena exists and no way of ever knowing if it does.
That bugs me.
That was exactly what I was implying in my post, Bonsai.
Note my careful wording, "would only be apparent", rather than "will".
Note my careful wording, "would only be apparent", rather than "will".
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Why did you even bother to make the above post? It adds nothing to your argument.
I thought here was a thing called the Casimir Effect? But it can also be explained as the Relatavistic Van Der Wals force familiar to Chemists too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect
Good podcast on the BBC at the moment:
Well worth a listen:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gr7p58
Funny and informative. Covered the Big Bang too.🤣
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect
Good podcast on the BBC at the moment:
Well worth a listen:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gr7p58
Funny and informative. Covered the Big Bang too.🤣
Welcome back Steve. I trust you are well.
The most quoted example of the consequence of zero-point field energy is the Casimir force between uncharged, perfectly conducting plates.
75 years after Hendrik Casimir made his prediction, theory is lagging behind the experiments which can now measure his force with great accuracy.
Does the Casimir force prove that the electromagnetic field contains zero-point energy?
Is it simply that the Casimir force is the long-range van der Waals interaction between material bodies?
The physicists seem unable to come to a consensus as they debate over their different concepts of what space is.
https://courses.physics.ucsd.edu/2014/Fall/physics215a/project/Casimir-Review.pdf
I've got this Infinite Monkey Cage book in my collection.
It provides a fun way to explore all manner of scientific marvels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_block#Wringing
Curious effect as an oil film etc is bad news. Hence molecular attraction.
Vacuum welding. Another effect?
I’m wondering if the Casimir effect is more to do with how atoms that have all their electron energy bands occupied, as in the two plates in the experiment above, behave when brought to within a few nano metres of each other, rather than some mysterious quantum vacuum fluctuations? It seems this is what the more recent papers are intimating, or am I reading this wrong?
Thinking more about the quantum vacuum point energy of circa 10^69 joules/m^3. I could imagine if the lattice arrangement that causes the associated energy field components to neutralise each other was disturbed, then you could see a ‘big bang’ and essentially a cosmos could emerge, seemingly from nothing, from the underlying energy field.
Perhaps other cosmoses are popping into existence as we speak, creating their own separate space time continuums.
Interesting idea.
Perhaps other cosmoses are popping into existence as we speak, creating their own separate space time continuums.
Interesting idea.
The same sticking effect can be a problem when optically polishing glass. They can be flat to 1/100 wave. Probably better now but the flatness needs to relate to the flat's size and thickness to avoid distortion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_flat#Wringing
The usual answer but for some reason not shown in this wiki listing is 3 tabs of tissue etc equispaced at the edges. A slight difference in thickness forms the wedge - maybe via finger pressure first,
According to quantum creation, 'bubbles' appeared spontaneously from the vacuum, like bubbles of steam in boiling water.
Many tiny bubbles were fated to expand and collapse again while still of microscopic size.
However, our particular bubble started expanding at an ever-increasing rate, becoming a universe in a state of inflation.
Other bubbles may have survived to become universes like ours, so our universe could be sitting in a network of bubble universes.
As far as I can make out, some physicists say the Casimir effect can be explained by the van der Waals interaction and some don't.
For the record, van der Waals forces are also known as London Dispersion Forces, and more can be found out about these forces here:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Structural_Biochemistry/Chemical_Bonding/Van_der_Waals_interaction
The basis of the van der Waals interaction is that the distribution of electronic charge around an atom fluctuates with time.
Van der Waals is a far more reasonable explanation for the attraction between the plates than vacuum fluctuations.
It seems here is another case where someone has had a bright idea (nothing wrong with that!) and then used mathematics to underpin their observations.
I think there has to be a very, very careful balance between observation, hypothesis and then mathematical underpinning of the theory. This is covered in Jurgen Renn’s presentation on GR where he shows just how robust AE’s thought processes were. GR is a superb example of that because AE started out with SR, which then helped him formulate his GR ideas, and then the mathematical proof - which he agonised over for 4 or 5 years - but they formed interlocking processes that with each iteration strengthened.
I watched a YouTube video a few yrs ago (might even have been linked to from here or the previous thread) where a bunch of physicists were around a blackboard discussing some hypothesis or other when one of them exclaimed ‘That’s it. We can write a paper!’ and off they all went.
It seems here is another case where someone has had a bright idea (nothing wrong with that!) and then used mathematics to underpin their observations.
I think there has to be a very, very careful balance between observation, hypothesis and then mathematical underpinning of the theory. This is covered in Jurgen Renn’s presentation on GR where he shows just how robust AE’s thought processes were. GR is a superb example of that because AE started out with SR, which then helped him formulate his GR ideas, and then the mathematical proof - which he agonised over for 4 or 5 years - but they formed interlocking processes that with each iteration strengthened.
I watched a YouTube video a few yrs ago (might even have been linked to from here or the previous thread) where a bunch of physicists were around a blackboard discussing some hypothesis or other when one of them exclaimed ‘That’s it. We can write a paper!’ and off they all went.
I read that the attractive Casimir force is indeed related to the attractive van der Waals (vdW) force.
However, as I suspected, which term we use is all down to the separations involved.
The ebook below tells us that, in the physics community, the two terms are not used interchangeably:
- The term "van der Walls" is usually reserved for the more distant parts of the force versus separation curve, outside the repulsive contact region.
- The term “Casimir force” is most often used to describe the dispersion forces between macroscopic objects at larger separations.
Back to gravity and an example of the power of mathematics in the search for dark matter.
In the left-hand Hubble image, the blueish smudges are background galaxies that have been gravitationally lensed by the massive galaxy cluster in the foreground.
Mathematical analysis has predicted the location of the dark matter that would be required to explain the nature and placement of the gravitationally lensed galaxies.
That location has been indicated by a blue shading in the right-hand image.
Scientists still don't know what dark matter is, but they seem pretty sure that it exists!
P.S. I found the images in here: https://www.space.com/mindblowing-particle-physics-stories-2023
That is, "Weird particle physics stories that blew our minds in 2023"!
In the left-hand Hubble image, the blueish smudges are background galaxies that have been gravitationally lensed by the massive galaxy cluster in the foreground.
Mathematical analysis has predicted the location of the dark matter that would be required to explain the nature and placement of the gravitationally lensed galaxies.
That location has been indicated by a blue shading in the right-hand image.
Scientists still don't know what dark matter is, but they seem pretty sure that it exists!
P.S. I found the images in here: https://www.space.com/mindblowing-particle-physics-stories-2023
That is, "Weird particle physics stories that blew our minds in 2023"!