THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE.

THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE.

A LOOK AT OUR BEAUTIFUL UNIVERSE.



INTRODUCTION.

The physical cosmos is so fascinating that it is an object of observation, study and speculation of many people. These includes scientists, philosophers, theologians, artists and a multitude of ordinary people with a great love for the universe. I am one of those who loves to examine all aspects of the cosmos. I am fascinated by its mystery and I have a particular cosmic vision which I would like to share with anyone who would be interested.

I have written a work which I called ‘COSMIC VISION’ and it dealt with a comprehensive and complementary understanding of the cosmos from three aspects: the physical, the rational and the transcendent. I like to call myself a cosmovisionist because to obtain a holistic understanding of the cosmos, one has to view it from these three different aspects. In this present work I would like to restrict myself, but not exclusively, on the physical aspect of the cosmos.

My view of the physical cosmos differs somewhat from the ordinary held views of cosmologists today. I do not want to dispute their theories but I would like to present my vision as clearly as I can, hoping that it has some merit.

I would like to dedicate my work to all cosmic beings because we all share in the most basic and fascinating element which is ‘to be’. We all have mutual rights and responsibilities to live and cooperate in peace, harmony and justice. I am very grateful to every person and creature that has made me to be who I am and I strive to grow in knowledge and love as far as it is possible. I would like to invite all to come to grow in the knowledge, wisdom and mutual love of our beautiful cosmos.

AUTHOR: HANS J. MEYER


TABLE OF CONTENT.

TITLE PAGE: PP. 1

INTRODUCTION: PP. 2

TABLE OF CONTENT: PP. 3

CHAPTER I. BASIC PRINCIPLES. PP. 4
1. ARISTOLE. PP. 4
2. ISAAC NEWTON. PP. 8
3. ALBERT EINSTEIN. PP. 1I
4. QUANTUM THEORY. PP. 14
CHAPTER II. THE MISSING MASS. PP. 16
CHAPTER III. THE FIFTH DIMENSION. PP. 21
CHAPTER IV. A GRAVITATIONAL-KINETIC FORCE. PP. 24
CHAPTER V. A BLACK-HOLE. PP. 31
CHAPTER VI. A THEORY OF EVERYTHING (TOE). PP. 37
CHAPTER VII. A BACK-HOLE UNIVERSE (B.H.U.) PP. 45
CHAPTER VIII. UNIVERSAL CONSTANTS. PP. 53
CHAPTER IX. COSMOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES. PP. 59
CHAPTER X. CONTINUOUS COSMIC EVOLUTION. PP. 71

CHAPTER I.

BASIC PRINCIPLES.

The universe is govern by fundamental physical principles, many of which have been discovered. It is important to know them in order to get a better understanding of the cosmos in which we live. The universe is so great and immense that it presence itself as a mystery to anyone who is trying to comprehend it. The task is to apply our intelligence, our collective memory, skills and knowledge to unravel these mysteries and so to contribute to a deeper appreciation and understanding of the cosmos. This becomes a universal challenge to all but particularly to those who have the skills, intelligence and opportunity. It is not restricted to the physical scientists but must also involve the philosophers, the theologians, the artists and every person who feels urged to contribute in any way possible.

1. ARISTOTLE.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was one of the greatest philosopher of the ancient Greek world who had a tremendous influence in the development of the Western European culture and civilisation. He was the teacher of the young Alexander the Great who conquered a great part of Western Asia and thus spread Greek culture and Aristotelian thought over the ancient world. Aristotle was a profound meta physician who tried to investigate the causes of things. He was not a physical scientist in our present day understanding, but he did study nature and was able to come to some very important discoveries that has helped us in the understanding of the universe.
As a philosopher, Aristotle knew the principle of sufficient reason. He knew and accepted the principle that: nothing can come from nothing. In a rational world there must exist a sufficient reason for everything that exists, which would explain its existence. One of the greatest puzzle is "existence" itself. Why does anything exist at all? But because we know intuitively that we exist, we also know intuitively that existence must exist. We further know that we are only finite; our existence does not explain the cause of our existence. In other words, we did not make ourselves because we are finite. Using the principle of sufficient reason, we can conclude that infinite existence itself must exist, that gives existence to finite beings. This infinite existence was called by Aristotle as the first cause, the cause or reason of all that exists.
These may seem to be intuitive or obvious statements but they are very important and need to be remembered and respected especially when it comes to the understanding of the universe. The universe could not have just formed itself out of nothing, this would be irrational because the universe itself is only finite and not infinite. To Aristotle there existed a first and a sufficient cause of everything that exists. It is the first and sufficient cause of everything that alone can give a sufficient reason of existence. To Aristotle this first and sufficient cause and reason of everything was pure essence, beingness itself, that gives beingness to everything that exists. The first and sufficient cause of everything that exists is universally acknowledged by intelligent people in all civilisation. To understand and to accept the existence of a first cause requires sufficient knowledge, intelligence and intellectual honesty. The first cause is pure act and acts from eternity.
The notion of an eternal act is difficult to understand and is closely linked with the notion of time. The concept of time can be threefold. Normally, our common or logical understanding of time means the past, the present and the future. What happened before the present is in the past and what will happen after the present is the future. We are all familiar with this understanding of the notion of time. We all were born in the past, we live in the presence now and we all will die in the future. Logical time is measured by comparing the period of time of a repetitive action. A year for example, is the period of time that the earth requires to revolve once around the sun. This is the normal experience and understanding of logical time of all thinking people.
However, Albert Einstein open up to us another understanding of the notion of time. The physical or relative notion of time which is time dilation. Time in the physical world is relative; it depends on the speed of a moving object relative to another object. The faster the object moves relative to another object the slower is its time factor. If the speed of an object nears the speed of light, its time factor is slowed down. No massive object can move at the speed of light where its time factor would be zero. This is a very different understanding from our common perception of time but it is very important and relevant when it comes to understand the physical universe.
There is another understanding of time which could be called transcendent; it is beyond the understanding of our common experience. It is different from physical time as used by the scientists when measuring the movement of sub-atomic particles. This transcendent notion of time is eternal time where there is no past or future but only an eternal presence. It is this notion of time that is applied to the first cause, or to the pure essence of existence. The first cause of everything has no past or future but exists only in an eternal presence. It is pure act that gives existence to everything that exists in the past, presence and future. This is a difficult notion of time but it is reasonable. If the first cause of everything that exists, is pure act and acts in an eternal presence, it is reasonable to say that it acts from eternity to eternity. Its action is eternal.
When viewing the universe from our common sense experience of time, we are inclined to say that the universe must have had a beginning because we have no experience of eternal time. From the physical understanding of time it is possible to say that the universe began when time began. This happened when massive or when non zero rest mass objects were formed out of pure energy, and moved with a speed lesser than the speed of light. Pure energy, however, which moves at the speed of light exists in a dimension of its own which I like to call the fifth dimension. In this dimension physical time has stopped or is zero because pure energy or electromagnetic radiation moves at the speed of light.
From the transcendent notion of time, it is reasonable to say that the universe, caused by the first cause is eternal. This notion is reasonable and can give an explanation to the physical laws of conservation of energy which states that energy can not be created or destroyed; in other words, it must be eternal. Scientists also hold that the basic laws that govern the universe are immutable. If the first cause, is the cause or origin of all the energy in the universe and the evolutionary process that governs the universe, than the universe can be considered to be eternal. The great medieval theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas had no difficulty in accepting the concept of an eternal universe as long as it was accepted that the first cause is the origin and end of everything that exists.
Aristotle contributed to our scientific understanding of the universe in teaching that for every movement there must be a cause or a force. For an object that is at rest to acquire movement, there must exist a cause, a power or a force that makes it to move. This was a profound insight into the nature of the physical universe. Aristotle might not have been aware of the different forces in nature and the laws of movement which were discovered much later. He was, however, aware of the existence of at least some physical forces that gave movement to the heavenly bodies.
Aristotle’s vision of the universe was rather limited when compared to our present day understanding. The earth was regarded as the center of the universe and all the planets, stars, sun and moon moved in concentric spheres around the earth and they determined their different orbits. This vision of the universe was firmly established by the work of the great astronomer Claudius Ptolemies of Alexandria (100-178 AD). It was so deeply held and taught as gospel truth that it lasted for over a millennium. Eventually, as new knowledge, evidence and facts where discovered, this vision was challenged and could no longer be held valid.


2. ISAAC NEWTON.

In the sixteen century, scientists were developing a new model of the universe. This new idea or vision of the cosmos was strengthened when Nicholas Copernican’s book, On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies was published just before his death in 1543. The new cosmic vision placed the sun as the center of the universe and had all the planets including the earth, revolving around the sun. Galileo Galileo (1564-1642) born about twenty three years after Copernicus's’ death, was the first person to use a refracting telescope for observing the heavens. He made a systematic observation of the heavens, giving observational evidence for a Sun-centred solar system as was predicted by Copernicus (1473-1543).
At the time of Galileo, also lived the great astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) who realised that the universe could not be infinite but must be finite because the darkness of the night sky directly conflicts with the idea of an infinite universe filled with luminous stars. Kepler was able to discover by using the astronomical data gathered by Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), the three laws of motion of the planets around the sun. These laws were important for the work of Newton to discover the law of gravity.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was one of the greatest physicist and mathematician of his time. He was able to discover the universal law of gravity and the laws of motion than bear his name. He was able to see that the reason why the planets moved in an elliptical orbits is that gravity obeys an inverse square law. He published his book The Principia in 1687 which had a great influence in the scientific development for the next three hundred years.
Newton left two important contribution to science. One was the law of gravity which states that the force between two masses any where in the universe, is proportional to the product of the two masses divided by the square of the distant (s) between them:
where (G) is the gravitational constant and (s) is the distant between the two objects or masses (m1 and m2). The other great contribution of Newton were the three laws of motion.
1. Every object continuous in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is acted upon by a force.
2. An applied force changes the momentum (p)of an object:

This means that the force (F) is related to the mass of an object (m) and the acceleration (a):
3. Whenever a force is applied to an object, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The great contribution of Newton to an understanding of the universe is the idea of the conservation of both kinetic and gravitational energy and forces. After a force has been applied to an object it gains kinetic energy which remains conserved as momentum. The momentum of an object which has kinetic energy, is released when the movement of the object is stopped. This can be clearly seen when an asteroid hits a planet. The kinetic energy or the force of the impact of the asteroid can cause tremendous damage. It is therefore possible to conclude that a moving object which has kinetic energy, carries a potential kinetic force. Similarly, the potential gravitational energy carries the gravitational force which is released when an object falls due to the attraction of the force of gravity.
If Aristotle taught that there must be a cause, a power, or a force for an object at rest to move, or a moving object to gain more momentum, Newton showed that this force or power is conserved in the momentum of a moving object. This meant that a moving object or mass would remain in the state of constant motion unless it was acted upon by another force. The force is only needed for the acceleration or deceleration of an object. A moving object has momentum depending on the speed and mass of the object. It contains kinetic energy which can be change into other forms of energy like gravitational potential energy, but this change can only come by means of a force. There are two basic forces and energies gravitational and kinetic.


3. ALBERT EINSTEIN.

The next great revolution in the understanding of the universe came in the early twenty century. Since the time of Newton there had been tremendous scientific developments and discoveries. However, it was Albert Einstein (1879-1955) who was able to discover the laws of relativity which altered the very concept of the nature of the physical world. The idea had always been that time was always constant and that it was independent from the speed of an object. Einstein showed that time, length and the mass of an object depended on the speed of an object relative to another object. The faster an object moved, its time and length would decrease and its mass would increase. What was constant was the speed of light in a vacuum and no physical object could move as fast as the speed of light. He showed that every object was relative to one another depending on its speed. This meant that every object was in constant relative motion in regards to all other objects in the universe.
The principle that affects time according to Einstein’s special relativity theory, is know as time dilation. It states that the intervals of time are not absolute but are relative to the motion of the observers. This means that for a moving object its time element is affected depending on its velocity relative to an another object in the same frame of reference :
where is the time when the object is at rest, (v) is the velocity of the moving object, (c) is the velocity of light and (t) is the time of the moving object relative to the other object. This would mean that if an mass object could move with the speed of light, the relative time of the object would be zero. This idea to Einstein, would be impossible. This formula shows that no massive object can move at the speed of light.
According to the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, which is another consequence of Einstein’s special relativity theory, the length of an object moving relative from another, seem to decrease according to the speed of the moving object:
where is the length when the object is at rest, (v) is the speed of the object, (c) is the speed of light and (l) is the relative length viewed by the other observer. This formula shows that if a massive object could move at the speed of light its length would become zero or invisible.
The third relativity law that affects a moving object is known as relativistic mass. This is the mass of a moving object as it is measured by someone who is in the same frame of reference as the moving object. The mass seems to increase as its speed is increased, relative to the observer. The formula is:

where is the rest mass of the moving object, (v) is its speed,(c) is the speed of light, and (m) is its relativistic mass. It can be deduced from this formula that no massive object that has a non zero rest mass, can move at the speed of light otherwise its mass would be infinite which is obviously impossible.
This important insight into the nature of physical reality meant that the Newtonian laws of motion where not absolutely correct. They would still be useful for objects that moved at relatively slow speeds compared with the speed of light and for this purpose they are still being applied. But Newtonian laws of motion would be insufficient when the speed of the object came near to the speed of light. Objects moving near the speed of light were govern by Einstein’s law of special relativity. These laws predicted certain phenomena in nature which can and have often been scientifically verified. These laws are regarded today as the fundamental laws of modern physics.
One of Einstein’s predictions of the special relativity laws was that the light coming from distant stars, when passing the sun is slightly bent. This was shown to be true and it means that electromagnetic radiation or energy is affected by gravity. Einstein was able to work out his famous equation that showed the relationship of mass and energy:

Energy is equal to the mass of an object times the square of the speed of light. Einstein was able to show the link between matter and energy and thus with light and with electromagnetic radiation. This great insight of the nature of physical reality of Einstein led to the discovery of atomic and nuclear power which has shaped modern society.
In his general theory of relativity Einstein tried to apply his great insight of relativity to the universe. He noted that all objects were in constant relative motion to each other and since mass could be turned into energy, energy could also become mass. He also pointed out that the kinetic and gravitational mass are equivalent and that space and time are connected forming a space-time continuum. In his early model of the universe which he held to be static, he predicted a universal constant force known as the cosmological constant that opposed gravitation. Later he rejected this idea and he accepted the theory that the universe could possibly be expanding or contracting.
Einstein’s general theory of relativity gave raise to many new general relativity theories of the universe which are very popular today. The common element of these theories, known as the big bang theory, states that the universe began from a singularity that popped out of nothing by means of quantum or vacuum fluctuation. After its beginning the universe expanded to our present dimension and it is still expanding. In order to explain various scientific problems the theories varied. Some of these theories talk about an inflation soon after the beginning, or describe the universe in terms of a bubble or bubbles, string, strings or super string. They talk seriously about worm-holes, magnetic monopole wormhole, parallel and evolving universes, and of a free lunch universe.