Friday 20 March 2009

Full Metal Jacket

Hydrogen is a gas at room temperature and standard pressure. In the Universe, hydrogen is primarily in the form of clouds of gas and stars. Hydrogen gas turns to liquid under standard atmospheric pressure at minus 262.9 degrees C . This is very close to absolute zero. Absolute zero is known to be 0 kelvin, minus 273.15 degrees C, and it's used to describe a theoretical system that neither emits nor absorbs energy. The temperature in space does not go any lower than 3 degrees kelvin. In laboratories, temperatures approaching absolute zero have been reached, but never absolute zero itself.

Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements in the Universe. 90% of all the atoms in the known Universe are hydrogen. Hydrogen is lighter than all other elements, and is lighter than air. Hydrogen is a diatomic molecule, meaning there are two atoms of hydrogen in a hydrogen molecule (which also makes it the smallest molecule), and therefore a compound with itself. Hydrogen really digs its own company. While diatomic hydrogen (H2) is not very reactive under standard conditions it does form compounds with most elements (the most obvious being oxygen to create water, H2O). Hydrogen, unless part of a compound, is never alone and always appears as a diatomic.

The theory that hydrogen turns metallic under extreme pressure was first advanced in 1935 by Eugene Wigner. Under normal conditions on our planet, molecular hydrogen functions as an insulator, blocking electrical flow. Apply sufficient pressure, theory said, and hydrogen turns metallic, becoming an exceptional conductor of electricity. Theory predicted that metallization would occur when the insulating molecular solid would transform to a metallic monoatomic solid at absolute zero - 0 kelvin. The following site is an excellent article on the search for liquid metallic hydrogen. It was written by the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Using a 20-meter-long, two-stage light-gas gun - the team are convinced they have discovered liquid metallic hydrogen.....
https://www.llnl.gov/str/Nellis.html

At metallization, Lawrence Livermore calculated that only 5% of the original molecules had seperated into indivual atoms of hydrogen, which means that the metallic hydrogen is primarily a molecular fluid (and not the monoatomic metallic state as predicted by theory). The experiment appears to confirm that metallic hydrogen is indeed a superconductor.

Now this all feels strange to me. I never quite expected to find that it is possible for hydrogen to reveal so much about the nature of the aether. Remember, matter is but a twist in the aether. A very dense element stretches the aether field. Hydrogen, being the least dense of the elements, skims the surface of the aether. For this reason, I think it is hydrogen which has the closest resemblance to the potential energy of the aether.

Where there is no heat, and where there is no light - this is where I expected to find the fluid of the aether. Absolute zero. I half expected to find nothing. Absolutely nothing. I've always assumed that the aether would forever remain untangible. It was my belief that it was simply not possible for the human mind to comprehend the aether. Instead, we're waving a polaroid of the aether that is developing into a metallic fluid.

To recreate metallic hydrogen in a laboratory, incredibly high pressures have to be used. Techniques for creating pressures of upto five million atmospheres (higher than the pressure at the centre of the Earth) are currently being developed in hopes of creating liquid metallic hydrogen. So, liquid metallic hydrogen is super-dense. The behaviour of the aether suggests that it too is super-dense. I have one image of the Earth as a styrofoam ball floating in the fluid of the tar-like aether. Also, the colossal speed of light means that the aether has to be unbelievably rigid - yet incredibly light since it does not impede motion.

It is supposed that at absolute zero, liquid metallic hydrogen becomes a super-conductor. I think there's good reason it becomes a super-conductor. In my mind, electricity emerges as something which is inherent to the aether, and not simply a property of matter, or EMR. I think it's the nature of the aether to be a super-conductor because electricity is a fundamental property of the aether.

Super-cooled helium, at 2.17 kelvin, becomes a super-fluid. Though it is super-dense, it does not resist objects passing through it. It flows frictionless through cracks and apertures so tiny that nothing else, not even a thinner gas, can penetrate them - at least, not without notable friction. Well, now a frictionless fluid is exactly what is needed to produce the unfathomably fast, mind-boggling gymnastics that create EMR.

Perhaps this is the most complex thing to understand about the aether - how can it be so very dense, and also extremely elastic at the same time? To support the Universe the aether needs to be both. In the same way, I guess, that God is thought of as being here and there at the same time. Remember though, that time is only an experience. Time is not inherent to the Universe. Time is dictated by the rate of perception. Though some frequencies of EMR appear to be in their trillions for every moment that passes, a faster rate of perception would effectively slow that number down. For me, this makes the aether more believable, as I come to understand that perhaps, I percieve the Universe at a very plodding pace compared to the physics going on around me.



Many thanks:
http://spacescience.spaceref.com/usmp4/daily/dec01_sciupdate.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s2050132.htm
http://www.energyskeptic.com/HydrogenEconomyBlackHole.htm
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761552913_1____6/hydrogen.html#s6
http://www.pesn.com/2005/06/26/9600116_Naudin_MAHG/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implosion_(mechanical_process
http://keelynet.com/osborn/rey7.htm
http://www.outdoormadness.co.uk/assets/images/Full_Metal_Jacket_002.jpg

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