Einstein Predicted Gravitational Waves
On September 14, 2015, LIGO detected Gravitational waves, as predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years prior. These gravity waves (ripples in spacetime) are believed to result from a cataclysmic event calculated over a billion light years away. Physicists describe these waves as being produced in the final fraction of a second of a collision between two black holes merging into a single, more massive, spinning black hole. Some of the mass is converted into the energy of this gravitational wave given by E=mc².
Efforts to directly prove the existence of such waves had been ongoing for over fifty years and the waves are so small that Einstein doubted that they could ever be detected, but on Sept 14, 2015, LIGO made the first direct observation of gravitational waves with an instrument on Earth.
Unified Field Theory and the Forces of Nature
Albert made so many contributions to Modern Physics it was a shame that he parted company with the Quantum Physicists such as Planck (1858-47), Bohr (1885-62), Schrödinger (1887-61), Born(1882-70), Heisenberg (1901-76), Pauli (1900-58) etc in search of his Unified Field Theory, which attempts to combine the four fundamental forces of nature: the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force, and the gravitational force. They work over different ranges and have different strengths. Gravity is the weakest, but it has an infinite range. The strong force binds quarks together in clusters to make more familiar subatomic particles, such as protons and neutrons. It also holds together the atomic nucleus. This force overcomes Coulomb’s repulsion.
The weak nuclear force acts inside of individual nucleons and has even shorter range than the strong force. It is the force that allows protons to turn into neutrons and vice versa. The electromagnetic force is the dominant force in the interactions of atoms and molecules and is mediated by photons. These two forces were elucidated by J. C. Maxwell (1831-79), who once worked at King’s College London, where I have been fortunate to study the gravitational force mediated by the so-called graviton. At present, we are still unable to reconcile the General Theory of Relativity (GR) with Quantum Physics at the instant of the Big Bang and thus GR is a classical theory.
The Sun’s Energy Production
Albert’s E=mc² explains how the sun sustains us. Inside our sun, atoms of hydrogen fuse (join) together to form helium, but the starting mass of hydrogen is greater than the mass of helium it produces, and this excess in mass is converted into energy according to E=mc², where c is the speed of light. Data suggests that the sun converts the equivalent of the mass of Mt Everest into helium every second, so we are talking about an immense amount of heat (stand in the mid-day sun in Saudi Arabia, and one can see how much power our star produces).
Not the best place to stop so abruptly, but I have run out of space again.
Until next time, “old friends”.
