Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sri-unix!pduff%ti-eg.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa From: pduff%ti-eg.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Questions about fundamental constants, gravity, electrons Message-ID: <495@sri-arpa.ARPA> Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 20:20:00 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.495 Posted: Tue Aug 13 20:20:00 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 06:28:18 EDT Lines: 51 From: Patrick_DuffIn place of some of the stupid questions that have recently been discussed, I'll pose some (perhaps equally stupid) questions: From time to time I hear or read about speculations that the values of the fundamental constants *could* be different now than they were 10**n years ago (given a suitably large value of n, as long as it is after the big bang plus one minute). Is this complete idiocy, or do some physicists take the possibility seriously? What about speculations that the values of the fundamental constants *could* be different in another part of the universe? There seem to be two possibilites, either that there is a continuous, gradual change, or that there is an abrupt change at "domain walls" separating various regions of the universe. The claim is made that we could not detect such variations since all of our measurements of distant phenomena are made locally, and hence are subject to transformations due to local conditions. Should these speculations be ignored, or do they have some merit? Accepting for the moment that the value of one of the fundamental constants (pick one!) could be changed, would it vary independently of the others or would some of the other constants change too? What are the relationships between the so-called "fundamental" constants, if any? Which of them seem to have unconstrained and hence "arbitrary" values? Has anyone heard more concerning the formulation of gravity as a push from infinity (analogous to the pressure inside a balloon) which is attenuated by mass instead of its more common formulation as a pull between masses? Last I heard there wasn't a way to distinguish between the two possibilities via experimentation, since all of the various experiments which researchers came up with would give the same results either way. If the push from infinity formulation is correct, then it seems to me that adding or removing mass from the universe would change the gravitational constant everywhere in the universe, though I'm not sure whether adding mass would increase it (more pressure) or decrease it (more attenuation). I've heard that there may only be one electron in the whole universe, which explains why all of the electrons we observe have exactly the same charge and mass. Does anyone understand how one gets the observed universe which appears to have *lots* of electrons from just one particle? What about the two electron spin states, and positrons (just one anti-electron in the whole universe?)? Or is the one-electron theory full of holes (sorry about that--I couldn't resist!)? regards, Patrick Patrick S. Duff, ***CR 5621*** pduff.ti-eg@csnet-relay 5049 Walker Dr. #91103 214/480-1659 (work) The Colony, TX 75056-1120 214/370-5363 (home) (a suburb of Dallas, TX)