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Friday, October 18, 2013

The Nature of Gravity



                   
The Nature of Gravity
As perceived by
Harold Gower

        Have you ever been to a carnival where there is a ride that is a revolving cylinder? It holds about 20 people, who walk in to it and arrange themselves around the perimeter. Then when the carnie throws the switch the cylinder begins to rotate and as it picks up speed the riders feel themselves being pressed against the wall of the cylinder, and suspended with nothing to hold them but the centrifugal force of the turning cylinder. Demonstrating Newton’s 1st law of motion, an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion until an outside force acts to change its speed or direction. In this case it is the friction of the rider’s feet with the floor that starts them moving, and it is the wall of the cylinder that forces them to change direction. It is the same force at work in the centrifuge in chemistry class, and it is this same principle that causes the spin cycle on a washing machine to work.
                    Often times, in science we make models to help us to understand and explain difficult ideas. We make models of DNA, Atoms, Crystals, etc. we also make models of large things like the solar system, globes of the earth and so on.
                    Understanding gravity involves understanding our 4dimensional universe. Since we live in a 3dimensional world, a concept of the 4th dimension is difficult because we have no perception of it. So it helps to make a model that is scaled down by one dimension, and our model becomes a 2dimensional world in a 3dimensional universe.
                    The 2dimensional world might be the surface of a trampoline populated by 2D people that look like coins. And the massive object representing the world might be a large lead sphere. When we place the sphere on the trampoline, it causes the surface of the trampoline to bend down into the 3rd dimension. The people (coins) being 2dimensional, have no perception of the 3rd dimension, but they feel themselves being drawn to the sphere. They conclude that the sphere has a mysterious force called gravity that draws them to it. But we, being 3dimensional, can see that the sphere has no mysterious force, but rather, the coins are sliding down the slope of their 2dimensional space (the curved surface of the trampoline). Of course the problem with this model is that it requires the earth’s gravity to make it work. If we take our model up to the International Space Station (ISS), setup the trampoline, put the coins on it, and put the massive sphere on it, nothing happens, because the gravity from the earth is balanced by the orbiting motion of the ISS.
                    Remembering the carnival ride, however, we can cause the ISS to rotate (not as fast as the spin cycle of the washing machine of course) by attaching a couple of small rocket engines on opposite sides of the ISS, with one pointing toward the earth and one pointing away from the earth. The resulting centrifugal force creates an “artificial” gravity which causes the objects inside to be drawn to the sides of the ISS, away from the center of spin. And now we find that our model will work just like it did down on earth.
                    So now we scale everything back up by one dimension, and we have a rotating 4dimensional universe (where time is the 5th dimension) causing massive objects to warp our 3dimensional space into the 4th dimension, which in turn causes smaller massive objects, like 3dimensional people who have no perception of the 4th dimension, and rocks and apples and dust and the gas that we breathe, and even light, to be drawn towards the larger massive objects, such as stars and planets.
        There are some excellent illustrations of the warping of space in “The Illustrated A Brief History of Time” p.19 and “The Universe in a Nutshell”  p. 34 & 39, by Stephen Hawking.


Friday, September 6, 2013


January 6, 2013

Love has no Gender

 

God is Love, we are told.

 

The Creator in all of Her holy names creates all of life, plants animals, humans, as well as everything in our universe. The more I learn about this immense Creation the more awesome the Creator becomes in my mind.

 

He creates the sweet potato and the dandelion as well as the lily and the rose. She creates each and every one of us, the Jew, the Italian, the African, the Asian, the Russian, the Indian, the Muslim…He loves all of his creation, and He instructs us to Love one another as She Loves us.

 

If you think you have created your children, think again. Just like the lower animals and the plants, we propagate, we don’t create life.

 

We enter this realm of three dimensions through the womb of zero dimensions, and depart it into the next realm of yet higher dimensions.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Labyrinth II


                                      August 31, 2013

Labyrinth II

 

I finally walked my labyrinth today.

like driving a tortuous mountain road

so convoluted

requiring total concentration

to avoid driving over the edge.

 

Walking the labyrinth clears

the mind of fears and worries and

the preoccupations that dwell upon the mind

which leave no room

for reflection, rumination, joy.

 

Meditation, a spiritual journey

far beyond all reason.

Many have taken this journey.

The pagan

 long before Jesus,

long before Moses,

long before any written word,

long before the spoken language,

experienced his spirituality,

in awe and fear

the birth of religion.

The journey continues…

 

Science,

 our study of this physical universe.

Religion,

 our understanding of our spiritual universe.

Neither negates the other,

because they are in and of

two entirely different realms.

Understanding one realm thoroughly

does not make an expert, or an authority

of the other.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Things to teach your Children Every Day



Things to teach your Children Every Day:
·       You are a very good person. - It gives them a goal to live up to. Goodness is not about where you’ve been or the mistakes you’ve made; it is a direction, a desire to help yourself and others to improve the quality of life.
·       You are very intelligent – intelligence is the ability to learn anything you want to learn, and you have it. - They will be better students when they know they can.
·       Learn to read and enjoy reading. - Reading is the foundation for all other learning. - In grades 1-3 you learn to read. In grades 4 and up you read to learn. Actually reading lessons begin much earlier as Mom and Dad read and sing to them.
·       IQ is a score on an IQ test. It does not measure a person’s ability to learn to drive a car, or build a house, or learn mathematics, or biology, or physics, or write poetry, or do anything useful. The only thing a high score can do is inflate your ego, so do not let a low score deflate your self-esteem. It only measures a person’s ability to do well on an IQ test.
·       Ignorance is “not knowing something”; it is a human condition, we all have it. The good news is that no matter how much we learn there is, and always will be, more great and exciting things to learn.
·       Love the Creator of life.
·       Love all that He created, yourself your friends and even your enemies.
·       Teach your children to forgive and that by forgiving they will be forgiven.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Literacy


Literacy is the most basic fundamental key to education, and education is the key to success. There is a clear correlation between crime and illiteracy.  Some states use illiteracy statistics of fourth graders to determine how big their new prisons will have to be in the next few years. Most of the future inmates are children of illiterate parents. Parents who are literate encourage their children to read by reading to them at an early age, and encouraging them to read as they get older.  

 

So those who are appalled at the rising crime rate; who live in gated communities and buy firearms for protection, would do well to consider volunteering a few hours a week at their local libraries helping adults learn to read, or perhaps volunteering at their local grade schools teaching children to learn to read.  

 

There is great value and satisfaction in helping ourselves by helping others.

 

Reading is important, and writing is equally important. I practice by writing brief vignettes of things that happened to me as I was growing up. Stories of family members and friends that, at the time, didn’t seem interesting or important. Many times I have rummaged through  boxes of family photos wondering who some of these people were, perhaps I know their names but don’t know anything more about them. By writing personal notes about your experiences with your aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins, you leave a legacy for your children, as well as honing your own writing skills.