When I was a young Scientific Officer
(not on the Starship Enterprise, though my
birthday does happen to be the same as Mr Spock <g>)
and an assistant to Dr Robotnik,
http://www.grimer2.freeserve.co.uk/pge18.htm
one of the experimental procedures we frequently undertook
was the preparation of various clays at a range of moisture
contents.
We combined the powdered clay with water in a large Hobart dough
mixer having a sun and planet stirring action. Where the clay
is at its plastic limit the mixture comprises a wide range of
lump sizes. Had I known then what I do now I would have
realised the mixture was exhibiting "a special property called
scale invariance or self-similarity" (UBIQUITY, page 40).
Unfortunately Benoit Mandelbrot's classic work, "The Fractal
Geometry of Nature" was still many years in the future and so
there was no theoretical framework available to illuminate
what I was seeing.
Looking at the constant churning of the mix, certain things
were fairly clear. Large lumps were being torn apart to form
smaller lumps with extra tensile strain energy and smaller
lumps were being compressed together to form larger lumps
with extra compressive strain energy. Individual particles
of clay were moving up and down the lump structure like
drunken angels on Jacob's ladder. I use the word drunken
advisedly since the process was obviously a random walk and
reminded me of my Dutch grandmother's epithet, "Clogs to
clogs in three generations".
Though, at the soil particle scale, the mixing process was
very dynamic, at the lump scale it was completely static,
in the sense that when one sieved out the lumps of various
sizes the grading curve of quantity against lump size
remained constant. Interestingly enough, a search of the
literature showed that this mixing phenomena is quite
general. For instance, grinding up marble leads to the
same type of grading curve though on a much finer scale.
The tiniest particles weld themselves together in the same
fashion as small clay lumps.
One day I was watching the dough hook going through its
hypnotic epicyclic dance, when I was suddenly struck by the
similarity of the lump distribution to the chart of the
nuclides. The large lumps corresponded to the Uranium end
of the chart. Fissioning the large lumps released the
excess compressive strain energy. The small lumps on the
other hand corresponded to the Hydrogen end of the chart.
Fusing the small lumps released the excess tensile strain
energy. The middle sized lumps were the lumps with a strain
energy and pore suction in equilibrium with the environment.
Unfortunately, this fascinating insight into the mechanics
of the nuclides is not the type of thing that one can bandy
about when employed as a government scientist. And so it
has remained virtually buried until now
Thanks to that wonderful institution, Bill Beaty's Vortex
University of the Web, we are all free to write without any
stifling restrictions other than those we impose upon
ourselves.
Since this hierarchical grading structure applies at
the upper boundary of clay and concrete and the lower
boundary of the nuclides, we can be as sure as God made
little green apples that it applies everywhere in between;
everywhere, that is, where power laws are manifest.
Which brings us, via another James Burke Connection.
the inverse fourth power Casimir Law.
The Beta-atmosphere, like the Alpha-atmosphere has a
self-similar structure. Consequently the number of lumps
of a particular characteristic length will be inversely
proportional to the cube of that length. The velocity
on the other hand will be simply inversely proportional
to the characteristic length since hierarchical strain
is conserved
As regards the pressure these lumps exert on a material,
the number of lumps per unit surface area is proportional
to the square of the characteristic size and the change
in momentum as the lump bounces off the material is
proportional to the square of the velocity. Ergo, the
pressure exerted by the lumps of a particular size will
be proportional to a inverse square power times an inverse
square power, which is an inverse fourth power.
This model will apply at all scales of self-organising
scale-invariant systems, so it is no surprise to see it
turning up in the three phases of water vapour discovered
a year ago.
The model also has some vital consequences for free energy
research. Large lumps have excess compression strain energy.
Small lumps have excess tensile strain energy. We know this
is true from the implications of work reported in the
Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, London, August, 1957
where Neil Ross and I presented a paper entitled,
"The Effect of Pulverization on the Quality of Clay-cement."
Now the effect of temperature on water vapour is to
fractionate it into three components with excess tensile
strain energy, ambient strain energy and excess compression
strain energy, respectively. Since the quasi-pore water
fluid of H20 is presumably electron fluid, by separating out
the excess tension and excess compression phases
within liquid water by means of a Hilsch Tube or other
device one should be able to generate a potential difference
and a source of combined fission-fusion water lump power.
The source of this energy is ultimately the Sun but if the
relevant fractions can be separated with less energy than
is put out, then as far as we are concerned the energy
is effectively free.
Making yet another Burkian Connection I may as well
deal with the following excerpt from Beene's
"Freezer burn" post of 23 Aug 2004.
================================================
A classical calculation shows that the power
radiated by a blackbody is also proportional
to the inverse fourth power of wavelength,
following the same constraints as the Casimir...
BUT... Although this holds experimentally for
long wavelengths, it fails utterly for short
wavelengths and was corrected by Max Planck.
At short wavelength we find a jump to a fifth
power law.
================================================
Anyone who took physics at school will doubtless remember
the experiment where the force-distance relation is measured
for an effectively isolated magnetic pole perpendicular to
the axis of a small magnet. One pole of the small magnet
attracts the isolated pole, the other repels it The net
result is the difference between two inverse square laws,
which is of course an inverse cube law.
So why does the inverse fourth power law fail "utterly for
short wave lengths". It fails because as the wavelength get
shorter and shorter, eventually an entirely distinct
atmosphere comes into the picture, the Gamma atmosphere
which holds the nuclear positrons and neutrons together
and which like the three water vapour phases also exhibits
a fourth power law.
And what is the difference between two fourth power laws?
That's right - a fifth power law.
I hope all you lurkers on the Beautiful Island are
paying attention. 8-)
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 array?
King Solomon
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