THE LIGHT OF THE UNIVERSE
CHAPTER XXXXVIII
part IV - Freemasonry, Science and Mankind
THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
W.
M. Don Falconer PM, PDGDC
The structure and behaviour of light are
fundamental to an understanding of matter.
As matter is to the touch, so
light is to the eye. Matter that apparently is solid belies its
nuclear structure, because it is comprised of atoms in which
electrons move in orbits that typically are 100,000 times greater in
diameter than the diameters of the nuclei of subatomic particles
that they encircle. It is difficult to envisage that all matter has
a structure that is somewhat similar to that of our celestial
universe, in which comparatively small and widely dispersed bodies
orbit at high velocities in vast volumes of space. The outward
momentum of the bodies orbiting in the celestial universe and the
attraction of gravity are the counteractive forces that sustain the
bodies in their orbits. These forces are in an extremely fine state
of balance. The pervasiveness of light, coupled with its apparent
lack of substance, appears to contradict both its tangibility and
the duality of its composition. As all living things are transitory,
it would not have seemed surprising to primitive people in ancient
times for natural light also to appear ephemeral, with day and night
and hence light and darkness coupled with the daily rising and
setting of the sun. In reality however, night is only the visible
evidence of a transient interception of the sun's rays in their
travel through space.
Empedocles, a Greek
philosopher and poet who flourished in about 450 BCE, is
reputed to have stated that light has a finite velocity, but
primitive people in ancient times generally believed that light
travelled through space instantaneously, appearing and disappearing
at will. They regarded light as a divine force that regulated their
daily actions and controlled the seasons. To them, day was for work
and night was for rest. When it was dark it was cold. When the days
were short and cold little effective work could be done. They
believed that the growing season depended upon the light and the
warmth they thought it provided. The primitive people did not know
that, although the sun is the common source of both our light and
our warmth, these two phenomena are separate and distinct. Light is
an essential element in the process of photosynthesis, which most
plants use to manufacture their food in the presence of chlorophyll.
Light also is a vital environmental factor that has many diverse and
significant effects on the life of mammals. Light occupies a unique
and fundamental position between space‑time and matter. Although
light, space and time are all conceptual phenomena, light also
possesses energy, as does warmth. This places light in a similar
category to matter, because it has tangible attributes that are of
the greatest importance.
An Italian astronomer, Galileo
Galilei (1564-1642), was one of the first who challenged the long
held belief that light travelled instantaneously. However, his
experiments to determine the velocity of light between two
observation points on different hills were not conclusive, because
the apparatus at his disposal was too crude. In 1675 a Danish
astronomer, Olaus Roemer (1644-1710), was observing eclipses of
Jupiter's moons discovered by Galileo, when he found that the
predicted times for the eclipses were in error by as much as 22
minutes. He reasoned that this was due to the varying distances
between Earth and Jupiter in their orbits around the sun, which
therefore would require different times for the light to travel to
Earth. On the basis of this assumption Olaus Roemer calculated the
velocity of light to be 227,000 kilometres per second. In 1728 an
English astronomer, James Bradley (1693-1762), determined almost the
same value for the velocity of light when his calculations took into
account stellar aberrations.
Stellar aberration is caused by the slightly different
directions in which stars are observed during the various seasons,
because the directions are a function of the positions of the earth
in its orbit, as a result of which different times are required for
the light from the stars to reach the earth. Modern equipment has
enabled more accurate determinations of the velocity of light, which
are mentioned later in relation to other experimental work.
Albert Michelson (1852‑1931)
and Edward Morley (1838‑1923) were two American scientists who
carried out a famous series of experiments in about 1900, when they
measured the velocity of light in a vacuum. They measured the
velocity of light travelling in the direction of the earth's
rotation, travelling in the opposite direction and also travelling
at right angles to the earth's rotation. They found that the
velocity of light in a vacuum is always the same, regardless of the
velocity either of the source of light or of the observer. Albert
Michelson and Edward Morley also established that the velocity of
light is independent of its wavelength and their experiments
disproved the long held theory that some form of ether was required as a
vehicle for the transmission of light. These facts are central to
the special theory of relativity that Albert Einstein (1879‑1955),
the German-born American physicist, developed and published in 1905,
because the velocity of light is a constant in the equation that
relates mass and energy.
Expressed briefly, Einstein's
theory of relativity states that the measurement of mass, length and
time depends entirely on the relative motion of the measuring
instrument in relation to the object being measured. When compared
with measurements made when both the measuring instrument and the
object are at rest, mass will increase, length will decrease and
time will be slower as the relative velocity of motion increases,
although these effects are not apparent to observers under normal
day to day conditions. When the relative velocities are about 90% of
the velocity of light, mass is more than doubled, length shrinks to
less than half and a clock would take an hour to record about 25
minutes. When the velocity of light is approached, mass increases
immeasurably, length shrinks towards zero and time would cease. In
Einstein's famous equation, E = mc2, the
energy "E" of a particle is
related to its mass "m" and the velocity of
light is designated "c".
This equation shows that, as
the velocity of a particle approaches the velocity of light, its
energy increases indefinitely. Because there is a finite limit to
the energy available to any particle, its velocity can never reach
that of light, hence the expression “nothing can exceed the
speed of light”. Although the velocity of light apparently
is a barrier that cannot be crossed, nevertheless there is evidence
of particles called tachyons that always travel faster than light,
which may exist even though none has yet been found. The concept
that the velocity of light cannot be exceeded was brought into
question early in 2002, when it was discovered that the rate of
expansion of the universe is accelerating and will ultimately exceed
the velocity of light. This phenomenon has been discussed in an
earlier chapter and has interesting connotations in relation to
travel through interstellar space.
The relationship between mass
and energy is fundamental to the primeval explosion believed to have
resulted in the creation of the universe. This relationship enables
stars to remain incandescent for extremely long periods, but it does
not fully explain the mechanics of the universe. The deficiency
appeared to have been rectified in Einstein's general theory of
relativity, first developed in 1915 and modified over the next year
or two, in which he takes into account the effects of acceleration
and gravity in a universe that is considered to be an expanding
elastic space‑time continuum with finite boundaries. Space is bent
due to gravity in the presence of masses like the sun, so that it
acts as a lens and deflects the light from distant stars. The theory
of relativity explains how dark stars can be formed when the escape
velocity from a star is increased beyond the velocity of light,
which can occur either when the star shrinks sufficiently at
constant mass or when it expands sufficiently at constant density.
It is conceivable that whole galaxies can form black holes, which
the black hole recently found in our Milky Way might be.
For centuries scientific
thought was divided concerning the composition of light. The Dutch
scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629‑1695) maintained that light
travels in waves through an invisible medium, which he called ether.
The famous English scientist, Sir Isaac Newton (1642‑1727), held an
opposing view and advanced the theory that light consists of tiny
particles projected by the light source, which he called corpuscles.
Nevertheless, both agreed that light travels at a finite velocity.
The debate was revived early in the 1800s when the wave theory of
light was revived and championed by Thomas Young (1773‑1829), an
English physician and physicist and also by Augustin-Jean Fresnel
(1788-1827), a French physicist, who were acting independently. A
few years later an English research scientist and chemist, Michael
Faraday (1791‑1867), suggested that light might be an
electromagnetic phenomenon. James Maxwell (1831‑1879), a Scottish
physicist and astronomer, was the first to carry out a detailed
investigation of Faraday's suggestion and to develop equations
describing how light waves are propagated through space by
repetitive impetuses. He found that the impetuses are derived from
electromagnetic variations caused by a varying magnetic field that
creates a varying electric field, which in turn creates a varying
magnetic field and so on. As a result of his investigations, James
Maxwell held that all radiations move through space at identical
velocities. That velocity, which is determined by the application of
Maxwell's equations, has since been proved to be the
velocity of light.
A German physicist, Heinrich
Hertz (1857‑1894), was the first to prove Maxwell's
equations experimentally and to demonstrate that
electromagnetic radiations other than visible light and radiant heat
also exist. These include radio waves, which were called
Hertzian waves in his honour. All forms of radiation
in the electromagnetic spectrum have since been proved to travel at
the velocity of light, differing only in wavelength and hence in
frequency. It is generally accepted that 299,792.58
kilometres per second is the velocity of light in a vacuum, which
has been determined by precise modern measurements. A velocity of
light through space of 300,000 kilometres per second is the commonly
used approximation. The velocity of light is reduced when not
travelling in a vacuum, but in a medium such as air, water or glass,
because its velocity varies inversely with the refraction index of
the medium. For example, water has a refraction index of
1.333, as a consequence of which the velocity of light
through water is only three quarters of its velocity in a
vacuum.
In 1900 a German physicist,
Max Planck (1858‑1947), found an explanation for the relationship
that exists between wavelength, temperature and colour. He advanced
the convincing though revolutionary theory that all forms of energy,
which include light, consist of discrete measurable units, which he
called quanta. Max Planck stated that the energy content of
each photon of light is a function of its frequency, so that the
energy increases as the frequency increases towards the ultra‑violet
end of the spectrum. However, because it had been conclusively
proved that all electromagnetic waves obey Maxwell's
equations, including light and radio, very little attention
was paid to Max Planck's quantum theory until 1905 when Albert
Einstein discovered that successive particles in a beam of light can
dislodge electrons from a metal surface, which came as somewhat of a
shock to the scientific world. This phenomenon is called the
photoelectric effect, which could not be achieved if light were
purely wave in form, because a beam of particles is required
equivalent to Sir Isaac Newton's corpuscles.
Max Planck's quantum theory
finally resolved the differing views concerning the propagation of
light, when he showed that light behaves either as particles or as
waves, depending on the phenomenon that is being investigated. The
concept of wave‑particle duality is the cornerstone of Planck's
quantum theory, which the Dutch physicist, Niels Bohr (1885‑1962),
adapted and used to analyse atomic structures and describe the
behaviour of their subatomic particles. Although Niels Bohr
maintained that an electron occupies a definite orbit in its
movement around an atomic nucleus, more recent developments in the
quantum theory have shown that it is impossible to ascribe a fixed
orbit to an electron. It has been shown instead that there is some
mathematical probability that a particular electron will be found
within a certain region of the atom's space. A more accurate
description of an atom's structure says that there is a diffuse
spherical cloud of negative electric charges surrounding its
nucleus.
The theory is commonly called
quantum mechanics and its development was extended considerably by
two physicists, Erwin Schrodinger (1887‑1961) of Austria and Werner
Heisenberg (1901‑1976) of Germany. Erwin Schrodinger also developed
wave mechanics from the theory that all subatomic particles should
all be treated as if they were light, which had been advanced in
1924 by a French physicist, Louis‑Victor de Broglie (1892‑1987).
Experiments in the late 1920s proved that electrons, which
previously had been regarded solely as particles, also have a wave
component in their character. Since then it has been shown that all
such particles have waves
associated with them and that their wavelengths are a function of
their masses and velocities. It has also been shown that all forms
of matter and energy possess wavelike and particle‑like properties,
but that both aspects never appear together under the same
conditions.
Although this wave‑particle
duality is especially important at the subatomic level, it has been
shown to be virtually universal in its application, even at the
macro level. Werner Heisenberg also established the uncertainty principle,
which states that when the momentum of a particle is known
exactly, its position is uncertain. This principle also applies for
combinations of time and energy. In 1943 a Japanese scientist,
Sin‑Itiro Tomonaga (1906‑1979), was the first to develop quantum
electrodynamics. Then in 1947 Willis Lamb (1913- ), an American
research physicist, found that there are two states of the hydrogen
atom differing in frequency. This led to further developments in the
theory of quantum electrodynamics, for which Sin‑Itiro Tomonaga was
awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965, with two American
physicists, Richard Feynman (1918‑1988) and Julian Schwinger
(1918‑ ). These developments in quantum electrodynamics have
provided a more precise method of calculating the behaviour of
electrons and other particles than was possible using the classical
quantum theory.
Discoveries
that have been made in the quest for knowledge of light give new
meaning to
"God said let
there be light and there was light"
as the statement features in the Genesis story of the creation. It
is now abundantly clear that the structure and behaviour of light
are fundamental to an understanding of matter, which suggests that
we might ultimately discover
light
to be the attribute of God that is the energy or life force of our
very existence. Is it possible that the velocity of light defines
the boundary between mortality and life eternal? The preacher in
Ecclesiastes 12:7 tells us that:
"The spirit shall return
unto God who gave it".
Does the human spirit, when released from its mortal constrictions,
pass as light into a timeless eternity? Contemplate this apparently
fantastic concept!
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