Counter a crackpot theory
Posted Nov18-08 at 04:18 PM by WCOLtd
A few years ago, when I was a kid, I had the idea that maybe mass creates mass.
Here's how it came about,
I knew that through high energy collisions, you can create mass out of relative energy between particles, when they collide at high enough speed, they can produce new particles.
I also knew that the higher the temperature of any given body of mass, the faster particles are bouncing around, or the greater the kinetic energy between gas particles.
I also knew that the core of the earth is extremely hot due to high pressures created though gravitational attraction.
So I postulated that mass must be creating mass, because the center of the earth is really hot, and particles are colliding with eachother and creating more mass, thereby increasing the pressure. Creating a slow runaway effect.
This runaway effect quickly dissuaded me, but then I thought this might be a slow process, and it continues until the body begins radiating the energy at a greater rate than it's creating energy.
Then I saw Neil Adams "Expanding Earth Theory" on youtube, I found it intriguing and dissapointing. Intriguinging because it was the same idea I had, dissapointing because he made it seem like some crackpot theory.
Although I doubt it describes reality, and that conservation of energy is wrong, I didn't see anything explicitly wrong with the idea. Is there something fundamental about the process of fusion I don't understand?
Here's how it came about,
I knew that through high energy collisions, you can create mass out of relative energy between particles, when they collide at high enough speed, they can produce new particles.
I also knew that the higher the temperature of any given body of mass, the faster particles are bouncing around, or the greater the kinetic energy between gas particles.
I also knew that the core of the earth is extremely hot due to high pressures created though gravitational attraction.
So I postulated that mass must be creating mass, because the center of the earth is really hot, and particles are colliding with eachother and creating more mass, thereby increasing the pressure. Creating a slow runaway effect.
This runaway effect quickly dissuaded me, but then I thought this might be a slow process, and it continues until the body begins radiating the energy at a greater rate than it's creating energy.
Then I saw Neil Adams "Expanding Earth Theory" on youtube, I found it intriguing and dissapointing. Intriguinging because it was the same idea I had, dissapointing because he made it seem like some crackpot theory.
Although I doubt it describes reality, and that conservation of energy is wrong, I didn't see anything explicitly wrong with the idea. Is there something fundamental about the process of fusion I don't understand?
Total Comments 3
Comments
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… only in a star …
Collisions will only create mass if there's fusion, and that requires very high temperatures, as in a star.
(I believe that's the definition of a star
)
Temperatures inside the Earth don't get anywhere near high enough.
Collisions can destroy mass, if there's fission, and that can happen inside the earth, but the "collision speed" would have to be far more energetic than the thermal (heat) energy of molecules, it would have to be done by very energetic decay neutrons etc, as in a man-made reactor. I've read that there have been natural "uranium reactors" in the past, but I don't know whether there are any still.
Ordinary decay of uranium etc (decay not caused by collisions) does heat the Earth … lack of knowledge of this heat supply was once an argument against the Earth being more than about 50,000 years old!
btw, you would do better to post ideas like this on the main forum … your last blog got no replies, but would probably have got plenty on the forum
Posted Nov19-08 at 04:01 AM by tiny-tim 
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Thanks for your reply, I was suspecting an answer of that sort.
Posted Nov20-08 at 02:05 PM by WCOLtd
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btw, I thought about posting it on the forum, but I thought that I would be reprimanded for having overly speculative posts. So for now, I'll just keep them on my blog.
Posted Nov25-08 at 01:03 PM by WCOLtd
