Category Standard Model
How far is it around the earth?
How far is it around the earth? More specifically, if I was to set off from here in Wokingham following a great circle route, how far would I have to travel before I found myself back here in Wokingham? Well, if you look it up on Google the circumference of the earth is near enough […]
Louis de Broglie
Prince Louis Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie was born in Dieppe on August 15th 1892. De Broglie first studied history, but developed an interest in physics as a result of working with his older brother Maurice. Maurice had been a naval officer where he worked on early radio systems for ship to ship and ship […]
The Schrödinger Wave Equation
Following Bohr’s model for the hydrogen atom Louis de Broglie suggested that the electron could be considered as a wave rather than a particle and proposed that the wavelength of such a wave was Planck’s constant divided by the linear momentum of the orbiting electron. In effect he was restating Bohr’s adopted assumption that angular […]
The Stern-Gerlach Experiment
This experiment is often cited as demonstrating that angular momentum is quantised. In fact it does nothing of the sort, and indeed it clearly demonstrates that it is not, at least not in the way that physicists would have you believe. The Stern Gerlach experiment was first carried out by German physicists Otto Stern(1888-1969) and […]
Retrospective Predictions!
Modern scientific enquiry aims to be as objective as possible. The mechanism that has evolved to meet this requirement is called the Scientific Method. The Scientific Method is predicated on the idea that new theories are developed based on a set of assumptions or postulates. To be useful the theory must be capable of making […]
How is it possible to make nothing out of something?
There is a fundamental conflict between the currently accepted interpretation of Maxwell’s equations and the absence of an ether like medium. Maxwell’s equations purport to show that a changing magnetic field induces an electric field and a changing electric field induces a magnetic field. Taken together these two coupled fields oscillate and the whole propagates […]
Hydrogenic Atoms and the Bohr Model
As we move up the periodic table atoms get heavier. They do so because the nuclei of heavier atoms contain more protons. In addition to the protons these heavier nuclei also contain another type of particle; the neutron, roughly equal in mass to the proton, but itself electrically neutral. So while the hydrogen atom comprises […]
Einstein and Bohr and the nature of reality
Perhaps the most important scientific debate of the 20th Century was that which took place between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein during the 1930’s and 40’s. At issue was the very nature of reality. By that time Bohr had become convinced that the laws of physics had to be different on the scale of the […]
Michelson Morley – the most successful failed experiment
Maxwell’s equations showed the link between electricity and magnetism in space. A changing electric current produced a magnetic field and a changing magnetic field produced an electric current. These appear to be related through a pair of constants, permeability and permittivity. Permeability and permittivity appeared to be properties of space itself, but as such they […]
Can electric charge exist in the absence of a charged particle?
Up until the 1820’s the only magnets that were known were lodestones and magnets made of iron such as compass needles. Then in 1820 Hans Christian Oersted was conducting a demonstration of the heating of a wire by means of an electric current. Coincidentally he also planned a demonstration of the effects of magnetism for […]
The Quantum Realist 