To understand the three vapour phases of water in
the light of Iterative Hierarchical Mechanics, it
is very helpful to see the 4, 8 and 12 power
relationships in the context of two similar systems
one on a larger scale, the other on a smaller
scale.
These two systems are the relation between Moisture
Content and pF for clays and the relation between
Atomic Number and Neutron number for atomic nuclei -
in other words the Chart of the Nuclides.
Now both these systems exhibit the same patterns of
instability, i.e. exogenous instability and
endogenous instability. From a systems point of view
they are the same graph just as fractal patterns at
different scales are essentially the same patterns
and can be recognised as such by anyone capable of
seeing the wood an ignoring the trees, or as William
James put it,
"The art of being wise is the art
of knowing what to overlook."
Starting with the clay system and exogenous
stability:
If you bang wet lumps of clay together they stick to
each other to form larger lumps, They fuse. If you
bang large lumps of clay together they break up to
form smaller lumps, They fissipate.
>From a systems standpoint this is the same behaviour
as exhibited by the nuclides. If you bang light
nuclei together they fuse. if you bang heavy nuclei
together they fissipate.
In both systems there is a stable middle point where
fusion is dynamically balanced by fission. In the
case of clays and a typical dynamic environment this
point is around the plastic limit. In the case of
the nuclides it is around iron.
Consider next endogenous stability. For the nuclides
the stability line represents the mid point
corresponding to iron in the exogenous case. With
clays, the corresponding line of stability is the
continuously disturbed line. On either side of the
line of stable nuclides there are regions of
instability, a metastable instability on one side
and a substable instability on the other.
Likewise with clays. The slurried line represents
the metastable boundary and the wetting and drying
lines the substable boundary.
Because clays are much easier to manipulate
experimentally certain things can be deduced about
the nuclides which are not obvious from the chart of
the nuclides. The neutrons correspond to the clay
particles, the protons to the clay pore water.
As one moves from light to heavy elements the nuclei
become "drier" and "drier". Now it is clear from the
clay pF relations which are linear on log scales
that the upper and lower boundaries of endogenous
stability converge. The two boundaries and the
stable continuously disturbed line all come to a
point at zero moisture content as they logically
must. One can deduce therefor that the upper and
lower boundaries of the nuclides must also meet the
stable line at the zero pore water point, i.e. the
point where the nucleus consist wholly of neutrons
with no protons. I know it looks as though they
diverge but that is because they are plotted on
the wrong scales.
If one wants to wax poetical about things, one can
think of the nuclides as the fundamental clay out
of which our material universe is formed. Bit like
Genesis really, eh! 8-)
The three water vapour phases, let us denote them by
their powers as 4, 8 and 12, represent the lower
boundary, line of stability /continuously disturbed
line, and upper boundary respectively. In this case
the pore water has to be the electron "fluid". By
carrying out a Carnot type cycling between the upper
and lower boundaries it might be possible to extract
more energy out of the Beta atmosphere than one puts
in. In other words it should be possible to build
the electronic equivalent to a heat pump Nature
seem to be able to do it - no problemo.We might be
able to do the same
And before anybody asks how one actually bells the
cat, I haven't the faintest idea. 8-)
Cheers
Frank Grimer
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Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising
Fair as the moon
Bright as the sun
Terrible as an army set in battle array
- King Solomon -
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