The Speed of Light is NOT About Light

wv wrote:

Well, i thought that was positively awful. I didnt
understand a word of it.

Therefore, i think you should commit
Hara-Kari.

w
v

Well sometimes, I post em before I watch em. And frankly that one was confusing.

And I can’t commit Harry Carey. I think he’s already been committed.

Agamemnon wrote:

, Dirac combined Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, electromagnetic interactions or photons or light.

Dirac’s equation had a startling side effect. It turns out it always produced 2 solutions, one positive and one negative. Dirac realized this meant something.

So, read on:

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http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/cern/ideas/antimatter.html

In 1928, British physicist Paul Dirac set out to solve a problem: how to reconcile the laws of quantum theory with Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Through complex mathematical calculations, Dirac managed to integrate these disparate theories. He explained how things both very small and very fast — in this case, electrons near the speed of light — behave. This was a remarkable achievement in its own right, but Dirac didn’t stop there.

The equation posed a problem: just as the equation x2=4 can have two possible solutions (x=2 or x=-2), so Dirac’s equation could have two solutions, one for an electron with positive energy, and one for an electron with negative energy — an unanticipated result. But classical physics (and common sense) dictated that the energy of a particle must always be a positive number.

Dirac interpreted the equation to mean that for every particle there exists a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with opposite charge. For the electron there should be an “antielectron” identical in every way but with a positive electric charge

Dirac argued that this anomaly was in fact the electron’s “antiparticle,” the subatomic equivalent of the “evil twin.” In fact, he asserted, every particle has an “antiparticle” with nearly identical properties, except for an opposite electric charge. And just as protons, neutrons, and electrons combine to form atoms and matter, antiprotons, antineutrons, and antielectrons (called positrons) combine to form antiatoms and antimatter.

Dirac’s equations marked the first time something never before seen in nature was “predicted” — that is, assumed to exist based on theoretical rather than empirical evidence — solely on the basis of theory guided by the human imagination. His prediction would be confirmed in experiments by Carl Anderson in 1932. Both men won Nobel prizes for their efforts.

When the existence of antimatter was confirmed, Dirac is reported to have said “my equation was smarter than I was.”