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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_Duff 

   In 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)