Reciprocal System #5-D.B.Larson Biography A [Thomas Newsome]

Transcript

all right hello everyone um we are moving slow through uh the background information on the reciprocal system before we start to get into uh some of the notes from his um his final book called beyond space and time we're going to start with his last book uh probably because it's uh it's the most kind of accessible in terms of its subject matter um but uh right now I'd like to get into a little bit of his uh biographical information just to show you where he's coming from uh some of this is just off the top of my head I have some notes on it but I'm not finding them right now so um Larson was born in 1898 in North Dakota someplace uh he I don't really know much about his very early life but um he fought in World War One and uh then he came home and I believe uh was a um moved out west I think he went to Oregon State University and uh settled in somewhere in the Portland area and I think that's where he lived for the rest of his life I think and uh he was doing mining engineering and I think eventually um mechanical engineering just uh was kind of a you know had a regular job and everything but on the side he was doing uh some research and uh I guess he he says um I wanted to tackle something specific okay this is kind of his side research um and uh you know he says I got shoved into administrative work and so often happens with engineers and in the industry and I think he um wasn't really too satisfied with that uh because he had a scientific bet to him and so he decided that he was gonna you know on the side uh kind of work on some um you know kind of intellectual uh Endeavors in terms of trying to make a mark scientifically and he said you know I wanted to tackle something specific of the rather first order of magnitude so that if I did hit something it would be worthwhile so um he said I wanted to research something I knew had an answer or felt certainly had an answer yet nobody had gotten it and I think he started delving into um using numbers to represent uh various of the kind of basic properties of matter so um he was he was plugging in uh like number uh integers integers into [Music] uh each one of the elements uh and I suppose the compounds too and to see if that would generate answers in terms of um you know the um inter-atomic distance the compressed uh the compressibility um you know the heat coefficients um and other um probably having to do with a valence um and electric and magnetic charges I think you got to that a little bit later but he wanted and and really just strictly the um you know uh the atomic weights and the um atomic numbers even and so he was looking to plug in specific numbers for uh for those uh for all these different elements in order to arrive at the same answers that people had come up with through measurement um so he was really looking for a theoretical way to explain the numbers um he says you know we are not changing the mathematics or the physical equations we're changing the view of the problem and I was talking about that before Larson was big on the concepts um he wanted to know uh you know you show him an equation um he was willing to accept the equation but he wanted to know why the equation was the way it was and even once uh Larson Incorporated his whole system you know he he would say you know 90 of Legacy science uh fits into my system you know um and it can be derived from the positive the initial postulates of my system of which there were really only two um you know Larson's and uh in for paret there is really only uh paret being the person who kind of revised Larson in the what we call the rs2 uh you know the universe is made out of motion and motion is the relationship between space and time and um you know the second the second uh I'll have to get the exact wording for for the uh postulates but there's the second password has to do with um you know commutative mathematics and euclidean geometry and paret basically uh rejected that and I think Larson would probably reject it too uh based on you know some of the things that he said he used euclidean geometry because he felt like the other geometries were too difficult to even uh that they wouldn't they wouldn't um they wouldn't make things any more simple the the other geometries were just as hard to visualize as some of these equations that he had and uh but paret kind of sidestep that because for him euclidean geometry was just a very special case of a larger geometry that is called projective geometry which is like a Cascade you know you go from projective geometry to a fine geometry to metric geometry and then to euclidean Geometry each as you go down each one is a subset of the other so euclidean geometry is what Larson settled on and Perez is saying well you know euclidean geometry only goes so far um there are some parts of the universe that require these other geometries um so uh anyway so Larson uh was was working on this stuff in the kind of in the background I think they uh there was a I think I read a quote from his wife uh that um you know he would come home from work and he would pretty much sit at his uh you know on the live in the living room uh with a slide rule you know a slide rule and a pad of paper and a pen and he would just be making all these uh if you don't know what a slide rule is it is the archaic form of a computer or a calculator um I've never actually operated a slide rule but that's what they used to use back in the early 20th century to make calculations uh before the Advent of the calculator so he would sit uh he would sit with a slide rule and just be making all kinds of computations and calculations about things um you know having to do with trying to figure out how to plug in these specific numbers integers into these um elements to to be able to arrive at their various properties um so you know he he's trying he's basically trying to take these quantitative um results and explain them theoretically uh and he started uh coming up with some things you know back in the say the late 20s early 30s said um you know the first chapters of his book his first book were starting to be written around 1930. I think he said at one point he was he was just walking across the street one time and he kind of just like had an epiphany uh about uh one of the uh equations that he was working on and the Epiphany was why don't you try um just assuming for the purposes of this equation that time and space are reciprocals of each other and he said he almost tripped while while crossing the street um and then he came got home and um tried it out and it was like a couple of uh answers just rolled out right in front of him so he said uh he started working on his his uh the first chapters of his book about 1930 and the last chapters right around 1940. um you said that the the book was not really written for publication it was written to keep my ideas in a coherent form uh I had no intention at the start to go into a new Theory of physics I was tackling a particular problem and you know when I got the right view or the right Concepts I didn't need any mathematics and um so he he's uh he's really saying you know once he got once he got something then it just started kind of snowballing and you know he he he plugged in that reciprocal time and space or reciprocals of each other and he got answers and so then you know he went to another problem that he'd been working on and he's like why don't I try that time and space are reciprocals of each other assumption and plug it into this you know into this problem and then he got another answer and then he went to another problem that he'd been having and he plugged that time and space our reciprocals of each other assumption into that again and it was like it was solving his problems and so he eventually came to the idea but maybe this is like a universal property and maybe this is where I should uh you know start my inquiry um and um you know I think then he made kind of a leap uh in you know in the right direction where he he recognized that uh time and space um the relationship between time and space is motion and that um you know what we're really talking about when we're talking about a relationship between time and space is we're talking about motion and that also once you have when you have motion um it's um it's an Asian idea that goes back much earlier but if you have motion um that motion is is eternal um you know if you have if if you if if you know like if you look at like Newton's equations if you set if you set something into motion that motion continues forever um the only reason why we perceive it as being like you push something say you push a ball um over the over the floor the reason why the ball eventually comes to a stop is because of friction it's not because the motion is only a certain um you know lasts for a certain amount of time if there was no friction which is you know a result of so-called gravity then that ball would continue in that direction forever um you know in a frictionless in a vacuum uh so uh Lars Larson recognized that that was part of the Newtonian equations but what I think other people hadn't recognized was that that is also um that is uh that kind of motion it's it it works the same whether you have um a translational motion or a rotational motion or in fact also a simple harmonic motion which is a motion that's always changing directions um a simple harmonic motion like a wave a wave motion um here he says you know you start out with motion and motion as such can occur in different forms you don't require anything to keep it going absence of friction you can rotate forever um and so uh you know that's kind of where he starts um you know the basis of where he's going and so he's he's really uh making an attempt to um kind of take the elements of the periodic table and instead of you know saying hydrogen is one and helium is two and lithium is three uh he's using a set of numbers to describe each one of the uh elements um he uses three different numbers and those numbers are um rotations the two number the first two numbers so there's three a b and c numbers A and B are the um two-dimensional rotations and um the third number is a one-dimensional rotation okay so he uh you know it says Identify the numbers with the rotations and the speeds and the idea of the photon as a simple harmonic motion now that's something that again the rs2 people would uh at least um clarify a little bit that that simple harmonic motion comes from what is actually a by rotation so if you have a two counter rotating uh things and you put them together the result is a one-dimensional simple harmonic motion which is um you know what we uh see as being the photon but that photon is coming from a by rotation and I think it's like the Epsilon function that you use uh to diminish the rotations because the you have two two dimensional rotations and then but the final result is a one-dimensional simple harmonic motion a motion that continuously changes Direction once you have a vibrational motion then you have an object in space um and then to explain radiation of those photons you have an object because once you have once you have a vibrational motion or simple harmonic motion you have or you know if you have the vibrational motion and then you combine that with a translational motion then you end up getting a simple harmonic motion and uh but if you so if you have that vibrational motion then you have an object in space and to get Ro to explain radiation you just move in a direction perpendicular to the vibration so the vibration is going this way and motion is going this way then you get the simple harmonic motion okay so uh I think uh we'll just go that far that so so Larson was basically working on all this stuff here from starting in about 1930. uh until uh the 50s where he kind of came to a uh a point where he he felt like he could really start writing meanwhile you know in his family life he had a son I think he had a son and a daughter but he had a son who was uh killed in warlord World War II um and uh you know had to move on from there and um you know he was still uh you know working at um some kind of engineering firm there out in Portland and uh I think he was um when he was in college he was like um he was a a classmate of Linus paulings they were both um they were friends and they were you know uh kind of uh I don't think they were like best friends or anything but they were uh kind of um mentally on the same page uh and they were both kind of rebellious against the kind of the system and were looking for uh other answers okay so we will uh go a little bit further with the um development of Larson's biography here um until we get uh up to the end of his life in 1990 um we'll do that uh in the next video and um I know I have another interview that he's done and um I've got to figure out uh which file that's in and so hopefully I can find that by tomorrow um otherwise have a great day stay tuned uh and be just just be patient we're moving along with the Larson but again uh I guess I'm kind of big on trying to establish a a a background and a context from which to move forward so uh we'll be doing some more biography on Larson tomorrow and hopefully very soon we'll be getting into the nuts and bolts of it all right have a great day thanks for tuning in