NOTHING BUT MOTION OTHER BOOKS BY DEWEY B. LARSON Physical Science The Structure of the Physical Universe The Case Against the Nuclear Atom Beyond Newton New Light on Space and Time Quasars and Pulsars Economic Science The Road to Full Employment NOTHING BUT MOTION Volume I of a revised and enlarged edition of THE STRUCTURE OF THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE By DEWEY B. LARSON NORTH PACIFIC PUBLISHERS P. O. Box 13255 Portland, Oregon 97213 Copyright © 1959, 1965, 1979 By Dewey B. Larson All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 79-88078 ISBN 0-913138-07-x Contents Preface vii 1 Background 1 2 A Universe of Motion 15 3 Reference Systems 29 4 Radiation 43 5 Gravitation 57 6 The Reciprocal Relation 71 7 High Speed Motion 83 8 Motion in Time 97 9 Rotational Combinations 115 10 Atoms 127 11 Sub-atomic Particles 139 12 Basic Mathematical Relations 147 13 Physical Consta nts 157 14 Cosmic Elements 173 15 Cosmic Ray Decay 185 16 Cosmic Atom Building 199 17 Some Speculations 211 18 Simple Compounds 219 19 Complex Compounds 235 20 Chain Compounds 249 21 Ring Compounds 269 References 285 Index 289 v Preface Nearly twenty years have passed since the first edition of this work was published. As I pointed out in the preface of that first edition, my findings indicate the necessity for a drastic change in the accepted concept of the fundamental relationship that underlies the whole structure of physical theory: the relation between space and time. The physical universe, I find, is not a universe of matter existing in a framework provided by space and time, as seen by conventional science, but a universe of motion, in which space and time are simply the two reciprocal aspects of motion, and have no other significance. What I have done, in brief, is to determine the properties that space and time must necessarily possess in a universe composed entirely of motion, and to express them in the form of a set of postulates. I have then shown that development of the consequences of these postulates by logical and mathematical processes, without making any further assumptions or introducing any­ thing from experience, defines, in detail, a complete theoretical universe that coincides in all respects with the observed physical universe. Nothing of this nature has ever been developed before. No previous theory has come anywhere near covering the full range of phenomena accessible to observation with existing facilities, to say nothing of dealing with the currently inaccessible, and as yet observationally unknown, phenomena that must also come within the scope of a complete theory of the universe. Conventional scientific theories accept certain features of the observed physical universe as given, and then make assumptions on which to base conclusions as to the properties of these observed phenomena. The new theoretical system, on the other hand, has no empirical content. It bases all of its conclusions solely on the postulated properties of space and time. The theoretical deductions from these postulates provide for theexistence of the various physical entities and phenomena—matter, radiation, electrical and magnetic phenomena, gra­ vitation, etc.—as well as establishing the relations between these entities. Since all conclusions are derived from the same premises, the theoretical system is a completely integrated structure, contrasting sharply with the currently accepted body of physical theory, which, as described by Richard Feynman, is “a multitude of different parts and pieces that do not fit together very well.” The last twenty years have added a time dimension to this already vii viii Nothing but Motion unique situation. The acid test of any theory is whether it is still tenable after the empirical knowledge of the subject is enlarged by new discover­ ies. As Harlow Shapley once pointed out, facts are the principal enemies of theories. Few theories that attempt to cover any more than a severely limited field are able to survive the relentless march of discovery for very long without major changes or complete reconstruction. Butno substantive changes have been made in the postulates of this new system of theory in the nearly twenty years since the original publication, years in which tremendous strides have been made in the enlargement of empirical knowledge in many physical areas. Because the postulates and whatever can be derived from them by logical and mathematical processes, without introducing anything from observation or other exter­ nal sources, constitute the entire system of theory, this absence of substantive change in the postulates means that there has been no change anywhere in the theoretical structure. It has been necessary, of course, toextend the theory by developing more of the details, in order to account for some of the new discoveries, but in most cases the nature of the required extension was practically obvious as soon as the new phenomena or relationships were identified. Indeed, some of the new discoveries, such as the existence of exploding galaxies and the general nature of the products thereof, were actually anticipated in the first published description of the theory, along with many phenomena and relations that are still awaiting empirical verifica­ tion. Thus the new theoretical system is ahead of observation and experiment in a number of significant respects. The scientific community is naturally reluctant to change its basic views to the degree required by my findings, or even to open its journals to discussion of such a departure from orthodox thought. It has therefore been a slow and difficult task to get a significant amount of serious consideration of the new structure of theory. However, those whodo examine this new theoretical structure carefully can hardly avoid being impressed by the logical and consistent nature of the theoretical develop­ ment. As a consequence, many of the individuals who have made an effort to understand and evaluate the new system have not only recognized it as a major addition to scientific knowledge, but have developed an active personal interest in helping to bring it to the attention of others. In order to facilitate this task an organization was formed some years ago with the specific objective of promoting understanding and eventual acceptance of the new theoretical system, the Reciprocal System of physical theory, as we are calling it. Through the efforts of this organization, the New Science Advocates, Inc., and its individual members, lectures on the new theory have been given at colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. The NSA also Preface ix publishes a newsletter, and has been instrumental in making publication of this present volume possible. At the annual conference of this organization at the University of Mississippi in August 1977 I gave an account of the origin and early development of the Reciprocal System of theory. It has been suggested by some of those who heard this presentation that certain parts of it ought to be included in this present volume in order to bring out the fact that the central idea of the new system of theory, the general reciprocal relation between space and time, is not a product of a fertile imagination, but a conclusion reached as the result of an exhaustive and detailed analysis of the available empirical data in a number of the most basic physical fields. The validity of such a relation is determined by its consequences, rather than by its antecedents, but many persons may be more inclined to take the time to examine those consequences if they are assured that the relation in question is the product of a systematic inductive process, rather than something extracted out of thin air. The following paragraphs from my conference address should serve this purpose. Many of those who come in contact with this system of theory are surprised to find us talking of “progress” in connection with it. Some evidently look upon the theory as a construction, which should be complete before it is offered for inspection. Others apparently believe that it originated as some kind of a revelation, and that all I had to do was to write it down. Before I undertake to discuss the progress that has been made in the past twenty years, it is therefore appropriate to explain just what kind of a thing the theory actually is, and why progress is essential. Perhaps the best way of doing this will be to tell you something about how it originated. I have always been very much interested in the theoretical aspect of scientific research, and quite early in life I developed a habit of spending much of my spare time on theoretical investigations of one kind or another. Eventually I concluded that these efforts would be more likely to be productive if I directed most of them toward some specific goal, and I decided to undertake the task of devising a method whereby the magnitudes of certain physical properties could be calculated from their chemical composition. Many investigators had tackled this problem previously, but the most that had ever been accomplished was to devise some mathematical expressions whereby the effect of temperature and pressure on these properties can be evaluated if certain arbitrary “constants” are assigned to each of the various substances. The goal of a purely Nothing but Motion theoretical derivation, one which requires no arbitrary assignment of numerical constants, has eluded all of these efforts. It may have been somewhat presumptuous on my part to select such an objective, but, after all, if anyone wants to try to accomplish something new, he must aim at something that others have not done. Furthermore, I did have one significant advantage over my predecessors, in that I was not a professional physicist or chemist.