A Simple Test of Special Relativity And Brief Discussion of Einsteins God letter in the context of Krishna Stories

An atomic clock. A simplified version of the NIST description. The clock works by trapping a ball of atoms (in the region where the six laser beams overlap) which are then bounced up and down through the microwave cavity by the two vertical laser beams. These beams are pulsed on and off, giving the atoms a gentle upward push. The atoms ball rises, about a meter, and falls under the influence of gravity. It passes through a microwave cavity, once on the way up, and once on the way down. The atoms interact with the microwave signal. If the frequency is perfectly matched, the atoms will emit light. This light is collected by the detector and the microwave frequency adjusted to maximize the detector signal. Once linked to the atomic resonance, the microwave frequency is a periodic signal that can be used for timekeeping just like the pendulum in a grandfather clock. NIST/Jeffrey Aarons.
http://www.learner.org/courses/physics/visual/img_lrg/atomic_clock_nist.jpg

http://www.top50states.com/images/hemisphere-map.gif

Thence we can conclude that a balance-clock at the equator must go more slowly by a very small amount, than a precisely similar clock placed at one of the poles under otherwise identical conditions. A. Einstein, 1905. Einstein is saying, Place a clock on the South Pole and another identical clock on the equator and watch them tick away to test his (special) theory of relativity.

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Dear All: After reading about the great scripture Srimad Bhagavatam and the Krishna stories, it seems appropriate now to discuss the Einstein God letter which is recently in the news. First, heres a brief word about why this God letter is getting such attention. You can skip the three mathematical equations discussed here (between the **********) and go straight to page 11 and you would have missed nothing! ****************************************************************** The equations given below can be found on pages 48 to 51 of the book The Principle of Relativity, Dover Publications (1952), which contains the English translation of Einsteins original papers and all related papers on relativity. It is available in most book stores. In this book, the following Greek notations are used, x = and t = and = 1/[1 (U2/c2)]1/2. The main purpose of providing this brief review is to call attention to a remarkably simple experiment, to test the revolutionary idea of time that Einstein himself had proposed, in his first 1905 paper on the special theory of relativity. It would be exciting if the suggestion made here on page 1 is taken seriously. It should be treated as a high school /college freshman sophomore level science project and involve the younger generation. Just demonstrating that two identical clocks, one placed at the South Pole, and the other on the equator, show a measurable time difference (unrelated to time zones that we use) would be enough of an excitement and indeed change our perception of time. Right now, the theory of relativity is still too academic an idea. Millikans Nobel Prize winning experiment which led to the most direct experimental determination of the Planck constant h (from the slope of the stopping potential versus frequency graph) was also conceived by Einstein himself in his 1905 paper on the particle nature of light. The famous light bending experiment, during a solar eclipse, was also conceived by Einstein himself. Likewise, a direct test of the concept of relative time is possible.

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Unfortunately, most attempts to test special relativity have been focused on complicated tests, such as the recently failed Faster Than Light (FTL) neutrino experiments. The same applies to the Bucherer experiments with the electron mass increasing as predicted by Einsteins relativity, and the highly controversial Kaufmann experiments, see also http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v53/i7/p511_1. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Everyone has heard about Einstein. He is known for his famous equation, E = mc2, and his theory of relativity. Here E is energy, m is mass, and c the speed of light. Even a middle school kid knows this equation. Einsteins theory, published in 1905, provides a startling new conception of the meaning of time. Before Einstein, time was believed to be an Absolute quantity. In his Principia, Newton introduces the idea of time as follows. Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself and from its own nature, flows equably without regard to anything external and by another name is called duration.. etc.. Einstein, however, said that time itself is must be considered as a relative quantity. Why? Because, according to Einstein, the speed of light c is a universal constant and is the same for all observers, regardless of their state of motion. Before Einstein arrived on the scene, the speed of light was considered to vary, depending on the state of motion; just as the speed of a moving car A depends on whether you are watching it by standing on the roadside, like a traffic cop, or moving alongside the car A, in another car B, in a lane next to the car A. The theory of electromagnetism, developed by James Clerk Maxwell (click here), in the 1860s, predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves, which travel at the speed cem = (ab)-1/2 where a and b are the constants in the force laws for the electric and the magnetic force, called the electrical permittivity (a) and the magnetic permeability (b), respectively. When Maxwell computed the speed cem, from then known numerical values of a and b, he was amazed to find out that the speed cem c, the then already known value for the speed of light. Maxwell, therefore, suggested that, perhaps, light is a wave of electromagnetic origin.
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A popular MIT student T-shirt depicting Maxwells four differential equations and the Biblical statement about light. Courtesy: http://mstatic.mit.edu/nom150/items/maxwell.jpg
http://rlv.zcache.com/and_god_said_maxwells_equations_shirt-p235628270699537542o98u_325.jpg

To develop this theory, Maxwell envisioned an imperceptible fluid called the ether. Electrical charges are present in this fluid. To Maxwell, the lines of forces that Faraday talked about, to explain electric and magnetic forces, appeared to be like streamlines in the ether. Using these analogies, and his considerable mathematical prowess, Maxwell was able to deduce all the known laws of electricity and magnetism, by applying the laws of ordinary fluid mechanics (as applied to common fluids like water and air) to the ether. The new electromagnetic theory predicted the existence of waves in this ether. And these waves traveled at the speed cem c, the speed of light! The earth is moving in this sea of ether and carrying the ether along in its annual journey around the sun. Even Einstein talks about this in a lecture he gave at Kyoto University on December 14, 1922, click here. (Einstein did not go to Stockholm to receive his Nobel Prize in 1922.) Maxwells electromagnetic theory has, of course, been confirmed beyond any doubt. Heinrich Hertz showed that such waves, called radio waves, could be produced in the laboratory using an electrical apparatus. Indeed, we live in a world that has grown out of Maxwells mathematical conceptions. Radio waves, X-rays, gamma rays, TV, radar, microwaves, mobile phones, and modern satellite based communications, would all be impossible without Maxells electromagnetic waves. But, long before this, Maxwell himself had decided to test his own theoretical predictions and designed an experiment to measure the differences in the speed of
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the light wave due to its motion through the ether. Unfortunately, Maxwell died at the very young age in November 1879, at the young age of 49 (in the same year that Einstein was born!) The experiment that Maxwell had planned was eventually performed by Michelson and Morley, in 1887, at the Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Just as the speed of a rowing boat will depend on whether it is moving upstream, or downstream, or across, a flowing river, the speed of light was supposed to vary as the earth moved through the sea of ether, during its annual journey around the sun. However, the Michelson-Morley experiment failed to detect any difference in the light speeds. Michelson, who received the Nobel Prize in 1907, click here, was indeed an expert on the measurement of light speed and had devoted all his life to perfecting these methods. The null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment was a great disappointment for Michelson, personally, and also of great concern to physicists of the late 19th century (see Lord Kelvins Two clouds lecture, click here). It remained a puzzle until Einstein arrived on the scene in 1905, and dismissed the very notion of the ether itself as being superfluous when he developed the special theory of relativity. It simply starts with the assumption that the speed of light is a universal constant! Based on the postulate of the universal constancy of the speed of light, (a postulate means we must accept it, without discussion, and proceed to examine the consequences of the assumption), Einstein then derives the following equation for time which changed physics forever. This is also the reason why Einsteins God letter is taking such importance. Einsteins equation for time is given below. t = t [ 1 (Ux/tc2)] /[1 (U2/c2)]1/2 = t [ 1 (Uv/c2)] /[1 (U2/c2)]1/2 (1) In equation 1, x and t are distance and time as perceived by ordinary observers, like the distance x traveled by a car and the time t taken to cover the distance. The ratio x/t is what we mean by speed, or velocity, v = x/t. Setting x/t = v gives the second equality. In Einsteins theory, the concept of times t and t is developed using two observers, say A and B, with their own but identical clocks, who are moving relative to each other at a fixed speed U but the speed of light c is assumed to be the same for both A and B. The first observer A, measures distance x and perceives
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the time t shown by the clock A. The second moving observer B, perceives the time t, shown by clock B, which is given by the above equation. If U = 0, t = t and the two clocks show the same time. If not, t t and the two clocks will deviate. Now, setting U = v, t = t[1 (U2/c2)]1/2 = t, where = [1 (U2/c2)]1/2 . Einstein calls this special case, U = v, as the rest frame in which events are to be observed. He then explains the meaning of the time t by computing the approximate value of the time difference, (t - t) = t(1 ) (U2/c2)t since the parameter 1 + (U2/c2) + the higher order terms, if we use the binomial expansion (click here). The time difference (t - t) increases as U increases and approaches the speed of light c. The time t perceived by the observer B, moving at U, is not the same as our time t. Or, as they say, the rate at which the clock B is ticking is slowing down! Einstein also derived a new expression for how distances change due to the motion of the observer. This is given by equation 2. x = (x Ut) /[1 (U2/c2)]1/2 = (x Ut)/ (2)

The relative nature of distance was recognized by Galileo, Newton, and Maxwell, long before Einstein. However, the denominator of equation 2 was taken as 1 and the distances were related by x = (x Ut). Since time t was considered to be the same for all, before Einstein, i.e., t = t, if the speed of an object v = x/t, according to observer A, its speed was v = x/t = x/t = (v U) according to observer B. Likewise, the speed of light c also varied, depending on the motion of the observer, i.e., c = c U. But according to Einsteins relativity postulate c = c. This obviously means that a new mathematical expression for t is needed. The expression for x is also modified for the same reason. If we reflect on this some more, there is nothing surprising about Einsteins equation 1 for the time t (called time dilation) or the new equation 2 for the distance x (called length contraction). Einstein has essentially converted his assumption into a set of elegant mathematical results of the (special) theory of relativity. Equations 1 and 2, i.e., time dilation and length contraction, are indeed the consequences of the assumption (or postulate) regarding the speed of light.
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Einsteins subsequent conclusion, that the speed of light can NEVER be exceeded, is also a consequence of the same assumption. The equation for the velocities v and v, from which Einstein concludes that speed of light is the highest speed that can ever be attained, is given below. Since, v = x/t and v = x/t it follows that these two velocities are related by (first derive the equation for v and solve for v): v = (v + U)/[1 + (Uv/c2)] (3)

These equations can be found on pages 48 to 51 of the book The Principle of Relativity, Dover Publications (1952), which contains the English translation of Einsteins original papers. Equation 3 is given at the very bottom of page 50. After deriving the result in equation 3 (which is a consequence of equations 1 and 2), Einstein shows that if the relative speed of the two observers U = c, the speed of light, it follows that v = (v + c) /[1 + (v/c)] = c. Hence, Einstein concludes that the velocity v of an object can never exceed the speed of light c and this speed represents the maximum speed that can ever be attained. The interested reader can learn to derive equations 1 and 2, following the steps outlined in Introduction to the theory of relativity, by P. G. Bergmann (Dover Publications, 1976). Einstein has written the foreword to this book. Bergmann was a close associate of Einstein at the University of Princeton. The 1905 theory is called the special theory of relativity, since the effect of gravity was not considered. Einstein only considers the motion of charged bodies, such as an electron, under the influence of electromagnetic forces. The electron was the only freely moving charged body known in 1905. The proton, neutron, or bodies like neutrinos, the last of which attracted attention in 2011, were not known in 1905. Reports published in Sep 2011 claimed that the extremely light particles called neutrinos were moving faster than the speed of light in some special experiments. (This claim was later withdrawn as being erroneous, click here.) Although the results are clearly a consequence of the new assumption (about the speed of light) introduced into physics, the implications of these new results bewildered even the physicists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Nobel laureate Lorentz (who received the Nobel Prize in 1902, click here), had tried to
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derive the same equations in 1904, before Einstein, but he had assumed time t = t and c is not equal to c. This approach led to confusing results about how the mass of a body (like the electron) varies with speed. The Lorentz results were not understood easily. Einsteins approach seemed more elegant and provided a clearer picture and also led to the startling conclusion of E = mc2, which Einstein presented in a separate and short paper, a few months after the first was published. Thus it is that theory of relativity, and the predictions such as E = mc 2, have been held with awe and still engage the attention of all. The simplest and most direct experiment of all, that can test the special theory of relativity, is as follows. This is described by Einstein to conclude the section 4 entitled, Physical Meaning of Equations Obtained in Respect to Moving Rigid Bodies and Moving Clocks. In the last sentence of this section Einstein states, Thence we can conclude that a balance-clock at the equator must go more slowly by a very small amount, than a precisely similar clock placed at one of the poles under otherwise identical conditions. Einstein is telling us to test equation 1 directly. Since the time difference (t - t) will keep on increasing as time t increases, following the equation (t - t) (U2/c2) t, all we have to do now is to place: 1. One clock at the South Pole (where humans are present and conduct many scientific experiments) and, 2. Another identical clock on the equator, say at Singapore, which is practically on the equator. Even better, place at least three clocks along the equator, one in Africa, one in South America, and one in Asia. Then watch these clocks tick away and measure the time difference (t t) shown by the clock pairs. The more the time t that has elapsed, the greater will be the time difference. The only restriction is that we must use a balance-clock as Einstein puts it, i.e., a clock that does NOT rely on the force of gravity in anyway, like a pendulum clock. Such clocks, called atomic clocks, are now available with accuracies in excess of femtoseconds, or even better. (Although gravity is used to
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cause the ball of atoms to rise and fall through the microwave cavity, the light emitting process, responsible for time-keeping, does NOT rely on gravity.) One femtosecond is 10-15 second, which is one billionth of a microsecond, which is one millionth of a second. A femtosecond is one millionth of a billionth of a second. Just watch the two clocks tick away for a month, a whole quarter, a whole year, and so on. There will be no need for anyone to be embarrassed, or resign, if such a simple test is conducted. With all the current interest in Einstein and his God letter, I do hope, physicists in a position to arrange for such a test take this suggestion seriously. Finally, in response to the Lorentz results regarding the variation of the electron mass with velocity, in different directions (so called longitudinal mass in the direction of motion, x, and transverse mass in the perpendicular directions, y or z), Einstein is bold enough to suggest that they must be erroneous conclusions. The expression for force = mass x acceleration must be interpreted carefully, says Einstein (see page 63 of above cited reference). In the longitudinal direction, the force Fx = m3(d2x/dt2) can be treated as Fx = (m3)(d2x/dt2), which means the mass has changed, or as Fx = m[3(d2x/dt2)], which means the acceleration has changed according to the postulates of the theory of relativity. In an earlier section, on page 54, Einstein states very clearly that according to the principle of relativity the electrical charge has the same value for both the observers A and B moving relative to each other. The same applies for the mass m. Thus, Einstein NEVER considered mass to be a function of velocity, although Lorentz had already expressed this view in his 1902 Nobel lecture. That would violate the principle of relativity. It was Max Planck (who founded quantum physics) who suggested the compromise, since physicists had to grapple with the meaning of the force equations emerging from the special theory of relativity. This may be found on the footnote on page 63 and is beyond the scope of the present discussion.

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In summary, a simple and direct determination of the special relativity time difference (t - t) is suggested here. The current widely held view of mass varying with speed must also be carefully re-examined since it violates the principle of relativity as emphasized by Einstein himself. Also, modern attempts to define the speed of light contradict the experimental basis of Maxwells equation cem = (ab)-1/2 and essentially turn both a and b into defined quantities, since the permeability b is a defined quantity and so is the light speed, c. No experiment has yet been performed where the velocity of a moving object (such as an electron, or a neutrino) has been measured directly by using independent instruments (that do NOT invoke the theory being tested, implicitly) to determine the distance traveled x and the time t taken to travel the distance. The FTL neutrino experiment measured both x and t using independent measuring instruments. The neutrino experiment failed but the direct determination of the time difference (t - t) is still of both scientific and general interest. Also, it should be noted that the daily rotation of the earth, about its own axis, in a time defined as 24 hours, is still the most fundamental reckoning of time. This is now called Universal Time (UT1), click here for details, and here. No one has any control on UT1. This 24 hour period is divided into 60 minutes per hour and 60 seconds per minute. One Earth day equals 86,400 seconds. However, we no longer define one second as 1/86400th the time taken to complete one rotation of the earth. The SI unit for time defines one second as the time taken for EXACTLY 9,192, 631,770 oscillations of the cesium-133 (Cs133) atom in its ground state. After Galileo discovered the law of the pendulum, the pendulum clocks replaced sundials and other clocks such as the hour glass and the water clock. The atomic clock has now replaced the pendulum clock (and other timekeeping standards used along the way). Atomic clocks are very precise and will deviate by only 1 second in about 20 million years. The International Atomic Time (TAI) is the average of more than 200 atomic clocks in located in various laboratories around the world. This is compared with the UT1. The Earth day, on average, is about 0.002 second longer than the 86,400 seconds measured by atomic clocks. A leap second is added when the deviation reaches 0.9 second. ******************************************************************
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And so, everyone now wants to know about Einsteins views on God, supposedly handwritten, in a letter, about a year before he died (see details about this letter, click here). And, if you have money, you can still bid to own the letter. The bidding started at $3 million. Einsteins letter, addressed to the Jewish philosopher Gutkind, appears to be his response to some remarks found in a book written by Gutkind, entitled Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt (1952, H. Schuman, 1st edition). In this letter (and the following is a direct quote as reported in the news articles cited), Einstein wrote the word God was nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. These remarks are now engaging the attention of all that God is nothing more than the product of human weakness. After reviewing the parts of this God letter that are available on the Internet, it appears to me that Einstein was much more interested in taking exception to Gutkinds view that Jews are a chosen people (while happily acknowledging himself to be a Jew) and, therefore, also took the time to write to Gutkind. It was not really a discussion about God but about Jews being a chosen people. Along the way, the message seems to have gotten a bit garbled, about God being the product of human weakness. Perhaps, Einstein was taking exception to the Jewish viewpoint of God. Within the context of the exchange with Gutkind, is it possible that the human weakness that Einstein is referring might just be directed at the Jewish people and not to be interpreted more generally? Other well-known Einstein quotes do not support the view of God that we find in this letter. Two notable ones are his statement, science without religion is blind and religion without science is lame, or God does not play dice, to express his misgivings about probabilistic basis for quantum physics ironically, the subject of the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics! In the last email, we already read about the sage Veda Vyasa and his dejection, which ultimately led him to compose the Srimad Bhagavatam. If you think that
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Veda Vyasas accomplishments supersede those of Einstein, then you know the answer to this human weakness assertion. Using the Vyasa yardstick, Einstein must clearly be wrong. Some of the responses in the Yahoo message board, to this news story were thoughtful and interesting and I quote here. (Unfortunately, I am unable to provide the screen names of these posters. I did try to revisit the message board again but was unable to retrieve the messages cited here.) The first is a quote by Goethe about Lord Byron (click here). Lord Byron is only great as a poet. As soon as he starts to think, he is a child. The poster of this message said that the above quote also summarizes Einsteins views about God. Einstein is only great as a physicist. As soon as he starts thinking, he is a child. If Einstein were to say, Mozart is no good, nobody would be paying any attention, said another poster on the same message board. Yet, another poster, had the following but sad story to tell. He wrote that many years ago, as a young man, he was in a car accident. He was driving carefully, at about 40 mph. All of a sudden a car from the opposite lane swerved into his lane and hit him head-on. He was in the hospital for many months and during all that time, he thought and thought about why this happened to him. He concluded that there is NO GOD. How can there be a God, to let something like this happen to me? He had done nothing wrong. Yet, he was put through this suffering. His conclusion was there is NO GOD. Obviously, this was many years ago and this man, who met with this accident, has lived to share this story once again, years later. And, it is also obvious that he still is bitter about the whole experience and still believes, THERE IS NO GOD. That is the saddest part of the messages (more 660 at last count) that I read about the Einstein God Letter. Everyone is chiming in with an opinion but there are many messages that are definitely tilted against Einstein. One even went as far as to call him an atheist A----. You know! The world is very cruel and there are cruel people who will not hesitate to say anything about anybody. Anyway, click here to read a nice lecture by Srila Prabhupada, Is Krishna God?
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Here it is stated that in 1966, when Prabhupada was founding the Hare Krishna movement, someone suggested that it should be called International Society for God consciousness. Prabhupada changed it to International Society of Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, since God is too vague. Prabhupada wanted everyone to know that when he spoke about God, he was speaking about a very specific personality (for want of a better word) Krishna. That brings me to the verse from Bhagavatam also cited by Pundrik Krishna Goswamiji in his discourse (click here). What is the greatest loss of all? 1. When someone loses his or her wealth, it is a great loss. It is like experiencing death itself. 2. Losing ones life, which means losing this body, is also a great loss. (This also implies that one lives even beyond this body.) 3. Losing ones good name is an even bigger loss. The third point is what Krishna reminds Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2, verses 34 and 35. The great Mahabharata war was about to begin. Krishna is Arjunas charioteer. Arjuna commands Krishna to move his chariot so he could survey the battlefield and see the enemy closely. Then, inexplicably, Arjuna suffers from a total nervous breakdown, drops his arms, and refuses to fight. (This is the topic of chapter 1 of the Bhagavad Gita.) Krishna tells Arjuna that if he were to run away, his good name and honor will be sullied forever. He must fight. All these great warriors, who hold you in high esteem, will think of you as a coward who ran away from the battlefield. That dishonor, O Arjuna, Krishna says, is worse than death itself. (MaraNaat ati-ricyate, verse 34, chapter 2). It is the good name of great leaders, philosophers, and scientists (like Einstein) that continues to live beyond their bodies. One has to live a life that makes one worthy of remembering. That is what a good name is all about. What is worse than all these three? Is there anything else worse than this? Yes. The biggest loss of all is losing the memory smaraNam - of the Lord.
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It is OK to dismiss God, to deny God, and even to hate God. That is what Kamsa did, Sishupala did, Ravana did, and Hiranyakashyapu and Hiranyaksha did. Although they were filled with hatred in their hearts, for the very idea of God (for Kamsa and Sishupala He was named Krishna, for Ravana He was named Rama, for Hiranyakashyapu and Hiranyaksha, He was named Narayana), they were still constantly thinking about God. Kamsa (Krishnas maternal uncle) was filled with terror and constantly thinking about Krishna. It had been prophesied that the eighth son born of his sister Devaki (Krishnas mother) would be his killer. So, Kamsa imprisoned his sister and killed every baby born to her. Yet, when the eighth son (He was the Lord as Krishna) escaped from the prison, due to the Divine will, Kamsa lived in constant hatred and fear. In modern times, fanatic atheists like E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker (known affectionately as EVR, or Periyar, to his followers), who founded the atheist movement in the state of Tamilnadu, India (and the political party DK which was the forerunner to the modern DMK, AIADMK, etc.), spent all their energy and time thinking about God and denying His existence. (EVRs atheist movement, also called the self-respect movement, has attracted scholarly studies recently.) They were all still blessed with His smaraNam memory. They never forgot Him. The loss of His memory, when we cannot even think about Him for a moment, is the biggest loss of all. We will discuss this point in more detail in the next email.
http://www.prabhupadavani.org/Bhagavatam/SB_index_I.html, See canto 3, chapter 2. http://smtp.hathayoganyc.com/en/teachings/books/prabhuji/bhakti-yoga-the-yoga-oflove/chapter-6-part-7-dasyam.php/?PageNumber=2

Very sincerely V. Laxmanan October 9, 2012 The companion article discusses the Bhagavat Katha in brief (click here), as narrated by Pundarik Krishna Goswami Maharaj of the Radha-Ramana temple in Sri Vrindavan Dham, India, see http://www.scribd.com/doc/108831479/BhagavatKatha-Saptah
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About the author V. Laxmanan, Sc. D.

Email: vlaxmanan@hotmail.com The author obtained his Bachelors degree (B. E.) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Poona and his Masters degree (M. E.), also in Mechanical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, followed by a Masters (S. M.) and Doctoral (Sc. D.) degrees in Materials Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. He then spent his entire professional career at leading US research institutions (MIT, Allied Chemical Corporate R & D, now part of Honeywell, NASA, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), and General Motors Research and Development Center in Warren, MI). He holds four patents in materials processing, has co-authored two books and published several scientific papers in leading peer-reviewed international journals. His expertise includes developing simple mathematical models to explain the behavior of complex systems. While at NASA and CWRU, he was responsible for developing material processing experiments to be performed aboard the space shuttle and developed a simple mathematical model to explain the growth Christmas-tree, or snowflake, like structures (called dendrites) widely observed in many types of liquid-to-solid phase transformations (e.g., freezing of all commercial metals and alloys, freezing of water, and, yes, production of snowflakes!). This led to a simple model to explain the growth of dendritic structures in both the groundbased experiments and in the space shuttle experiments. More recently, he has been interested in the analysis of the large volumes of data from financial and economic systems and has developed what may be called the Quantum Business Model (QBM). This extends (to financial and economic systems) the mathematical arguments used by Max Planck to develop quantum physics using the analogy Energy = Money, i.e., energy in physics is like money in economics. Einstein applied Plancks ideas to describe the photoelectric effect (by treating light as being composed of particles called
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photons, each with the fixed quantum of energy conceived by Planck). The mathematical law deduced by Planck, referred to here as the generalized power-exponential law, might actually have many applications far beyond blackbody radiation studies where it was first conceived. Einsteins photoelectric law is a simple linear law, as we see here, and was deduced from Plancks non-linear law for describing blackbody radiation. It appears that financial and economic systems can be modeled using a similar approach. Finance, business, economics and management sciences now essentially seem to operate like astronomy and physics before the advent of Kepler and Newton.

Cover page of AirTran 2000 Annual

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