From: Ronald Wong (ronwong@inreach.com)
Date: Fri Apr 08 2005 - 14:18:42 PDT
Message-Id: <l03102806be7c9872ac49@[209.209.14.68]> Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 14:18:42 -0700 From: Ronald Wong <ronwong@inreach.com> Subject: RE: Accelerating galaxies?
Nathan said:
>...
>He [a student] said that he has seen on some TV specials
>or something that the galaxies are accelerating away...
"Misconceptions about the Big Bang", by Charles H. Lineweaver and Tamara M.
Davis, is the name of the article that Mark Lawton had in mind for Nathan's
student who wondered whether the galaxies were accelerating away or, on the
contrary, shrinking. The article appeared in the March 2005 issue of
"Scientific American".
>...He also noted that the fact that electrons seem to maintain
>their orbital distance from the nucleus. He said this is strange
>because perhaps they should be falling into it.
From a classical point of view, Nathan's student is absolutely right in
thinking that the electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom "should be
falling into it."
As I pointed out a little over a week ago here on Pinhole regarding Charlie
Bissell's inquiry about the "Speed of an electron",
>>According to classical physics, any acceleration of a charged body will
>>produce an electromagnetic wave.
>>
>> That's how radio waves are produced. The electrons in the
>> radio antenna are oscillating back and forth in the radio
>> antenna.
>>
>>The electron of the hydrogen atom is constantly accelerating as it moves
>>about the proton.
>>
>> It's continuously falling towards the proton just like
>> an orbiting satellite is continuously falling towards
>> the earth.
>>
>>Classical physics says that the electromagnetic wave produced by this
>>acceleration should be carrying energy away from the atom. This continuous
>>loss of energy should cause the electron to spiral into the proton and
>>collide with it - something that just doesn't happen.
Why it doesn't happen has to do with the quantum mechanical nature of
things at the atomic level (the nitty gritty can be found in my reply to
Charlie). As I pointed out then:
>>Due to the quantized nature of things energy is only emitted or absorbed
>>when the electrons move from one prescribed orbit to another.
In their natural, undisturbed state, all the electrons of an atom are in
their ground state and therefore don't give give off any energy. Because of
this, they remain in their prescribed orbits and, as a result, don't fall
into the nucleus.
ron
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