What About Gravity?
Mass, Gravity, and Atomic Clocks
Is Gravity Light-Speed Limited?
Question: Could gravity (whatever that "glue" is) help light to "move along"?
Setterfield: According to SED physics, gravity itself is the result of a secondary field of energy generated by the ‘jiggling’ of subatomic particles – which itself is a response to the zero point energy which surrounds them. This secondary field effectively increases the strength of the zero point energy in that area, which in turn gives rise to a local increase of virtual particles. This increase results in a localized slowing of light which we see and interpret as gravity bending light.
Question: I know that gravity can bend or deflect a beam of light. Am I right?
Setterfield: Yes, see the above. I am currently researching material which is already in the scientific journals about this.
Mass, Gravity, and Atomic Clocks
Question: As a relatively new true creationist (like many others, I was a theistic evolutionist), I have been fascinated with all I'm exposed to from Answers in Genesis. Dr. Morris' writings and now from Chuck Missler and you.
… I understand the concept of time dilation as it relates to speed but don't understand how gravity affects time. The example of the clocks in Colorado and Greenwich being at different elevations will have different linear velocities which I surmise would affect them, but how does gravity fit in?
I'm afraid I have no way possible to wrap my mind around zero point energy as I think I understand it from your tape. Maybe that comes in physics 202 or beyond.
Please help.
Setterfield: Thank you for your encouragement – it is appreciated. Like you, when I first accepted Christ as my personal Saviour, I was a theistic evolutionist, and the Lord had to take me down a long route to get me to see His Truth in His way. In fact it was the evidence from the changing speed of light – the hard data – that finally converted me to His way of thinking on the matters of science.
Your basic problem appears to be with the Zero Point Energy (ZPE). Let me put it to you in this way. If I stretch a rubber band or blow up a balloon, I am investing the fabric of the balloon with energy. This energy becomes apparent if I release the rubber band and it flies across the room – fast at first, then slows to a stop. In a similar fashion, when God stretched out the heavens (stated 12 times in the Old Testament) He invested the fabric of space with an energy, the Zero Point Energy. The precise mechanism whereby the vacuum obtained this energy is discussed in “Exploring the Vacuum.” Because of the mechanism involved, the ZPE has built up with time. This increase in the ZPE has given rise to the slowing speed of light, the quantized redshift of light from distant galaxies, slowing atomic clocks etc. The other point that needs to be mentioned for the sake of clarity is that the ZPE is basically a form of electromagnetic energy.
You ask specifically how gravity can slow the rate of ticking of atomic clocks. You mention different velocities for clocks in Greenwich and Colorado as being a possible cause for the time difference. Actually, the velocity differences are small enough as to have no major effect on the run rate of the two clocks. The main effect is that they are at different levels in the gravitational field of the earth. This is the problem. Now I am going to come at this from a slightly different angle from that of Einstein, since I have under review for a journal an article which shows how all Einstein’s predictions from relativity can be reproduced exactly by a consideration of the ZPE. In other words, the ZPE allows a unification of a number of different effects, including gravity, all in one basic cause. Do not let this terrify you -- it actually simplifies things! I will now see if I can get a couple of important concepts across before I explain myself more fully.
The ZPE is the controlling factor in these phenomena. It can be shown that the rate of ticking of atomic clocks is dependent upon the strength of the ZPE. When the strength of the ZPE is greater, then all atomic processes, including the rate of ticking of atomic clocks, is slower. The reason why atomic clocks tick more slowly when the ZPE is stronger will be mentioned a little later. This means that, as the strength of the ZPE built up over time after Creation, atomic processes slowed down. This in turn means that atomic clocks ticked much faster in the past. Since radioactive decay is essentially one form of atomic clock, this means that radioactive decay processes were also faster in the past. As a consequence, everything dated by radioactive decay methods seem very much older than they really are.
The next point you need to know is that the ZPE is stronger around massive objects. Again the reason why will be dealt with in a moment. But here is the basic concept. Wherever there is matter or mass, there is a local increase in the strength of the ZPE. The ZPE strength obeys the same rules as we have for gravitation. Therefore, around massive bodies like the earth or the Sun, the increased strength of the ZPE causes atomic clocks to slow down. The further out you are from a massive body, the less will be the strength of the ZPE until it reaches its cosmological value in empty space devoid of matter. Therefore, because Greenwich and Colorado are at different levels in the gravitational field (and local concentrations of mass such as mountains also affect things), the clocks will tick at slightly different rates. Similarly, the clocks of the Global Positioning System are in orbit – further out from the earth, so that the strength of the ZPE is also lower out there than on the earth’s surface. Therefore these GPS clocks need a correction for this ‘gravitational field’ effect. This is in addition to the velocity correction.
Let’s consider why the ZPE increases around massive objects. Physicists today view mass as arising from charged, massless point particles. The problem that modern physics has is how a massless charged point particle acquires mass. The approach using the ZPE is useful here. The electromagnetic waves of the ZPE “sea” in which all point particles are immersed impinge on these particles and cause them to dance around in what is called the zitterbewegung, which is German for “jitter motion.” Because the waves of the ZPE are moving at the speed of light, and the point particles have no mass, they are battered around by the waves of the ZPE at very close to the speed of light. This motion has an energy, effectively a kinetic energy or energy of motion. We know from Einstein’s relationship that energy and mass are inter-convertible. Thus the jitter motion effectively imparts mass to those massless particles. It can be shown mathematically that the mass acquired by this mechanism is equal to the mass expected from more usual considerations. Because I mentioned the fact of charged particles, it may be thought that neutrons would not be considered in this exchange. However all matter, even neutrons, is considered to be made up of quarks, which are charged. Therefore, all mass can be accounted for by this mechanism.
Now what about the attractive force we call gravity? According to classical ideas, oscillating charges such as those making up matter, emit secondary electromagnetic fields due to their movement. These fields have recently been shown to have an attractive property on all charges in the vicinity (See the California Institute for Physics and Astrophysics for further information on this). It does not matter whether the charge is positive or negative, the attractive property is the same. This attractive force has been identified as gravity. It has the same magnitude and obeys the same laws. Therefore, a gravitational field is simply these secondary electromagnetic fields associated with the oscillating or jittering point particles. These secondary fields locally boost the strength of the ZPE which in turn slows down atomic clocks and reduces the speed of light. In fact this mechanism can account for all the effects proposed by Einstein in General Relativity. But to do that, Einstein used elaborate tensor equations and the concept of a curved geometry for space-time. As it turns out, the same results can be obtained by using high school mathematics when the ZPE approach is adopted, and no curved geometry is necessary.
Finally, an explanation is needed as to why atomic clocks slow when the strength of the ZPE is greater. As mentioned above, radio-decay processes are one form of atomic clock. In each radioactive decay equation there is either a term for the speed of light, c, or Planck’s constant, h. Planck’s constant was defined by Planck in 1911 as being a measure of the strength of the ZPE. We have found that hc is invariant, meaning that h will always be proportional to 1/c and c will always be proportional to 1/h. Therefore, when the ZPE is stronger, the value of c is smaller and h is greater. But c always appears on the numerator of these equations while Planck’s constant, h, appears on the denominator. Therefore, whichever term is used, the factor related to the strength of the ZPE effectively appears in the denominator of each decay equation so that as the strength of the ZPE increases, the decay rate slows down. In a similar way all other atomic clock rates can be shown to be ZPE dependent.
I hope that clarifies your thinking.
Is Gravity Light-Speed Limited?
Question: I’m still a little puzzled by the second-order electromagnetic /ZPE picture of gravity, in that the issue of speed (eg Van Flandern’s observation arguments ) appears to be an obstacle. Does it not imply gravity should be light-speed limited?
Setterfield: You asked about the speed of gravity as compared to the speed of light, on the basis of Van Flandern’s work. It is certainly true that on an electromagnetic origin for gravity one would expect the speed of gravity to be the same as the speed of light. This is the viewpoint of standard relativistic physics, and it is at this point that Van Flandern has found intense opposition to his work. However, there may be a means of harmonizing the two approaches. The speed of light is determined by the number of virtual particles in existence at any one time in a given volume of space. They act as ‘hurdles’ to photons in transit, since they absorb and them re-emit the photon, which takes a very tiny amount of time, but nevertheless still takes time. It would seem that between virtual particles the photon travels at the speed it originally had in the beginning. Thus, the virtual particles are the reason for the slowing speed of light, not any sort of ‘tired light.’
By contrast, gravitational waves (assume they are waves, and that they exist as such) would be of extremely long wavelengths. As a consequence, the virtual particles would not act as a barrier to them any more than dust particles act as a barrier to infrared light. Therefore it may well be that if gravitational waves exist, their speed will be that of the original speed of light and not the speed of light now.
I hope that helps a bit. Keep in mind that gravitational ‘waves’ have not yet been identified! They are still looking.
The Effect of Gravity on Light
Question: What is the effect of gravity on light?
Setterfield: First of all, we need to understand what gravity is. We think of it as the attraction of one MASS to another, but it is rather the effect of electromagmetic fields sent out by charged particles in motion (due to the battering of the ZPE). Thus, the denser the mass, the more charged particles are there, the more motion they exhibit, the denser the electromagnetic field. This is the attractive force we perceive as gravity. As a result, this greater electromagnetic field will produce a greater number of virtual particles at any one time in any given volume. Thus light is slowed even more in these areas and we then see it as gravity 'bending' light. What we are actually seeing is light which is slowed more than normal in local denser fields of the ZPE.
Question: Does gravity cause light to wrap light around the backside/dark side of a planet/moon?
Setterfield: Yes, it does. But the amount is very small. Even with the sun, the amount of bending of the light is relatively small.
Question: If light can't escape a black hole, then doesn't the change of direction indicate a change in the speed of light?
Setterfield: The simplest way to explain it is that in the case of a black hole, the secondary electromagnetic fields which are perceived as gravity would be so strong that light would be bent into a circle, and hence not escape.