{"id":4705,"date":"2011-12-24T09:33:57","date_gmt":"2011-12-24T16:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/?p=4705"},"modified":"2011-12-24T09:33:57","modified_gmt":"2011-12-24T16:33:57","slug":"article-4-no-to-magnetic-reconnection-and-yes-to-electrified-plasma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/2011\/12\/24\/article-4-no-to-magnetic-reconnection-and-yes-to-electrified-plasma\/","title":{"rendered":"Article 4 : “No” to Magnetic Reconnection and “Yes” to Electrified Plasma"},"content":{"rendered":"

A VIEW OF THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE FROM THE CAYMAN ISLANDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

A NEW PARADIGM OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT – THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE<\/p>\n

– by Rev Nicholas Sykes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A concept that has gained increasing acceptance in current Physics is the idea of \u201cmagnetic reconnection\u201d, which was referred to at the end of my last article. This idea is typically pulled out for service to explain observations of energetic outbursts that are otherwise not explained in a universe or a solar system or a geosphere that is presumed to be electrically neutral, or whose underlying electrical nature is either not acknowledged or assumed not to be important to the phenomenon being described. The aurora borealis and aurora australis (Northern and Southern Lights) have accordingly been treated as \u201cmagnetic reconnection\u201d phenomena fairly routinely, and the same idea is applied to kinetic and thermal energy outbursts and particle accelerations that occur variously in the sun, in the galaxy and elsewhere in the cosmos.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Magnetic reconnection is conceptualised, as its name suggests, as a phenomenon of magnetism, and among other things it is a way of concealing or ignoring the electrical origin of all magnetism and all magnetic phenomena. It hypothesises that a magnetic field, such as exists around the Earth may, under certain conditions, release energy explosively by a spontaneous reconfiguration of the lines of force with which it is visualised. This is effected – so the idea goes – by some of the lines of force \u201cbreaking\u201d and then \u201cjoining up\u201d with different lines of force, thus producing a magnetic field pattern that stores less energy. The energy difference between the two patterns is manifested by conversion to the energy outburst requiring to be explained.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is extraordinary, to say the least, that such an idea has gained so much support in the halls of academia. Electrical engineers and plasma cosmologists have been known to say that magnetic reconnection is one of the stupidest theoretical ideas that researchers ever derived from the mistaken belief that there are no significant electric currents in space. Yes, the mathematics can be made to fit \u2013 though with increasing difficulty as observations proceed – with the energy needs involved, but it should be remembered that processes of physics are not explained by such equations. However, in the case of \u201cmagnetic reconnection\u201d there is a much deeper difficulty than that. I refer to the inconvenient truth that the lines of force of a magnetic field do not physically exist at all! They are only a mental aid for us to conceptualise the shape and intensity of a magnetic field. Schoolchildren will agree that when iron filings are sprinkled on a table top upon which a bar magnet has been positioned, many of the filings join up into curved lines, but lines of force can just as easily be thought of as between those lines as in any of the lines of filings themselves. Lines of magnetic force are not physical entities, any more than are the contours of a geographer\u2019s map, or the isobars of a weatherman\u2019s chart. One might just as well talk about a \u201ccontour reconnection\u201d as being the explanation of a volcanic eruption, as to consider \u201cmagnetic reconnection\u201d to be an explanation of energy outbursts of various sorts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMagnetic reconnection\u201d, like a number of other currently popular hypotheses, is one more resort of those desperately attempting to shore up a physical model of the universe that largely ignores the role of electricity. Some of us consider the whole magnetic reconnection concept to belong more to a Harry Potter novel than to reality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Previous articles in this series have referred to Sir John Herschel\u2019s nineteenth century insight that there are \u201cCosmical electric currents traversing space and finding in the upper regions of the Sun\u2019s atmosphere matter in a fit state of tenuity to be auroralized<\/em> by them\u201d. The Electric Universe paradigm holds Herschel to have been correct, as was Kristian Birkeland (1867 \u2013 1913) when he posited that \u201cthe whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds\u201d, and that \u201cthe greater part of the material masses in the universe is found, not in the solar systems or nebulae, but in \u2018empty\u2019 space.\u201d In other words, Birkeland proposed that space consisted everywhere of plasma. Modern estimates indeed consider that more than 99.9% of the mass of the universe resides in the plasma. Let us therefore spend a little time on the topic of plasma.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Ancients discerned four \u201celements\u201d of earth, water, air and fire. It is likely that they were describing the same reality as we now do when we speak of the four \u201cstates\u201d of solid, liquid, gas and plasma. The idea of \u201cplasma\u201d was suggested by the various forms of electrical discharge that take place through what we have been accustomed to call ionised gases. The forms of this electrical discharge and certain of their properties brought to mind the properties of blood plasma in living beings, and so the name “plasma” has stuck for the state of matter in which the discharges can occur.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Donald Scott points out that the last state of matter to be identified in modern times, the plasma, is really to be understood to be the first, rather than the fourth state of matter. For one thing, nearly all of the matter of the universe is in this form, as Birkeland proposed. The galaxies, stars and planets are, comparatively speaking, specks of dirt and dust in a sea of plasma.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When an electrical potential difference is initiated across a length of gas at low pressure in a laboratory (or in a fluorescent light at home), certain changes take place that transform much of the gas into a state of plasma, because the atoms of the gas are being broken into their sub-atomic constituents. Unfortunately, cosmologists in general seem not to be able to apply even the most elementary knowledge about the behaviour of electrified plasma to the observations of their own field. Clear evidence of plasma in space, for example, is misleadingly interpreted or visualised as streams of gravitationally-driven gases, the \u201csolar wind\u201d being perhaps the most well-known example. Fundamental to an understanding of the workings of the Electric Universe is a basic knowledge gained from the electric discharge laboratory of how a body of plasma reacts to electrical stress.<\/p>\n

\u00a0With thanks for feedback suggestions from <\/em><\/p>\n

Wal Thornhill <\/em><\/p>\n

and<\/em><\/p>\n

Marinus A VanderSluijs<\/em><\/p>\n

All articles in this series have been published in Cayman Net News.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A VIEW OF THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE FROM THE CAYMAN ISLANDS A NEW PARADIGM OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT – THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE – by Rev Nicholas Sykes   A concept that has gained increasing acceptance in current Physics is the idea of \u201cmagnetic reconnection\u201d, which was referred to at the end of…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tblogs"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"The Thunderbolts Project\u2122","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}