18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Alternative to Nonsense, April 18, 2009
This review is from: The Theory of Elementary Waves: A New Explanation of Fundamental Physics (Hardcover)
For a century, experiments with subatomic particles--such as the double-slit experiment linked to the particle-wave theory of light--have yielded puzzling results. Physicists have long possessed equations that successfully predict these results, but quantum mechanics, the theory that has accompanied those equations, is less satisfying. Like the math, it does explain the results, but only if the physicist accepts such propositions as these:
-A single particle at once occupies multiple, separate locations.
-A particle travels on multiple paths toward multiple destinations but arrives at only one destination.
-The destination of a particle depends on its conscious observer. (Consciousness determines reality.)
-Conscious observation of a particle collapses it from a "superposition of multiple states" into a single state.
-At any given instant, a particle can have only an exact position or an exact velocity, not both.
-Objects can interact from a distance without any physical means to do so.
-Objects can change location instantly (moving at infinite speed).
-Causation can run backward in time (so that an event in the present determines what happened in the past).
Unlike the author, Dr. Little--and unlike Albert Einstein before him--most physicists accepted such propositions. They had no choice: that no other theory had been proposed proved that quantum mechanics was the correct theory, and the illogical nature of this theory proved that the rules of logic were delusions. Many of the physicists who reached this conclusion no doubt had I.Q.s over 200, like Dr. Little's. These physicists did not, however, match Dr. Little in intellectual discipline or persistence.
As a disciplined thinker, Dr. Little knew that quantum mechanics had to be wrong. As a persistent investigator, he continued his inquiry until he discovered a likely source of the error. Earlier physicists had labored under an unrecognized assumption: that the wave on which a particle of light travels runs in the same direction as the particle. Dr. Little recognized this assumption as an assumption and tried working with the opposite notion: that the wave runs from the particle's destination to the particle's source. This alternative notion makes sense of the experimental results that, under quantum mechanics, are explained only by simultaneous occupation of separate locations, interaction from a distance and by no physical means, backward-in-time causation, and so forth.
The assumption that Dr. Little replaced--the assumption about wave direction--affects none of the math that quantum physicists have used to predict the results of experiments. The math works the same, regardless of wave direction. It supports Dr. Little's theory just as well as it supports quantum mechanics. But, unlike quantum mechanics, Dr. Little's theory obeys the rules of logic and hence may be right!
In fact, there is very good reason to believe that the Theory of Elementary Waves accurately describes reality. One test of a theory is whether it explains phenomena that it was not devised to explain. Little's theory does so in abundance, solving problems that involve Newton's physics, the Theory of Relativity, the inner workings of the atom, and even magnetism--another topic over which physicists have long parted ways with reason. The Theory of Elementary Waves in fact explains so much that it is far more than an alternative to quantum mechanics: it is a new explanation of physics, an explanation so elegant that Dr. Little shares it and its implications in a mere hundred and fifty pages.
Dr. Little has toppled a pyramid of mystical and impossible nonsense that less disciplined geniuses built over the course of a hundred years and which, for all that time, most physicists have admired. To replace that pyramid, Dr. Little has devised an ingenious theory that obeys the laws of reason and, so far, appears to be consistent with reality. His book offers fantastic encouragement for individuals who dare to think with discipline and persistence until they find answers that work.
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18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Epochal, February 25, 2009
This review is from: The Theory of Elementary Waves: A New Explanation of Fundamental Physics (Hardcover)
In this book Dr. Little presents his comprehensive theory of physics. The method used is reasoning from factual information inductively towards a coherent physical theory. This contrasts with many physical theories today that represent theories imposed on reality i.e. deductively. Accordingly, these currently accepted theories always have nasty inconsistencies that result from the deductive approach.
Although the book is quite accessible to the general reader, this is not light reading. One must progress slowly in order to absorb the various points that are made in each chapter. As you would expect, the subject matter builds on itself. Thusly, each component is integrated consistently with existing knowledge in a coherent manner yielding a comprehensive whole.
Although the criticism of current physical theories laid down in the book by the author is deserved, I found it perhaps more severe than I would have used. The book clearly explains why current theories are irrational and then goes on to present a coherent theory of matter.
I am in complete disagreement with the reviews expressed by Hobbyman and O. R. Blaumanis - they must have read different books.
I recommend the book to anyone who is interested in promising physical theories. But, the book is more than that. For the first time, a theory is presented that yields a rational quantum theory as well as explaining relativity phenomena. Additionally, Dr. Little shows how the Theory of Elementary Waves gives rise to the macroscopic - that is - electrical phenomena (electricity and magnetism) and mechanics.
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