The Redundancy Inherent in the Casimir Force
Sven Gelbhaar
29.04.2008 – 6.05.2008
An Engineer thinks his equations are an approximation of reality, a
Physicist thinks reality is an approximation of his equations, and
meanwhile the Mathematician doesn’t care. — A random cynic on
slashdot.org/, paraphrased
[Figure 1]
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061217.html :“This tiny ball provides
evidence that the universe will expand forever. Measuring slightly over one
tenth of a millimeter, the ball moves toward a smooth plate in response to
energy fluctuations in the vacuum of empty space. The attraction is known
as the Casimir Effect, named for its discoverer, who, 50 years ago, was
trying to understand why fluids like mayonnaise move so slowly. Today,
evidence is accumulating that most of the energy density in the universe is
in an unknown form dubbed dark energy. The form and genesis of dark energy
is almost completely unknown, but postulated as related to vacuum
fluctuations similar to the Casimir Effect but generated somehow by space
itself. This vast and mysterious dark energy appears to gravitationally
repel all matter and hence will likely cause the universe to expand
forever. Understanding vacuum fluctuations is on the forefront of research
not only to better understand our universe but also for stopping
micro-mechanical machine parts from sticking together.”
It’s been a while since we’ve published a novel article on the reduction of
paradigms needed to keep Physicists (et al.) realistic. Thankfully we have
yet to address the Casimir Force, until now. This will presumably conclude
our debunking of the Quantum Field Theory, for it is the last apologetic
argument that supports it.
Hendrik Casimir, now a Nobel Laureate, predicted an attractive force
between two conducting metal plates in 1948 ¹, and this was later
confirmed even with non-conductive plates (presumably to rule out simple
electromagnetic force). ²
The Casimir Force Theory, as I will call it henceforth, relies upon Quantum
Field Theory in that it postulates that vacuum fluctuations between two
bodies of mass will, at specific intervals, create an attractive force when
the number of virtual photons created by these vacuum fluctuations on the
other side of this cavity is greater. In other words: it claims that we
are bathed in virtual photons created by quantum effects, and when the
‘atmospheric pressure’ of this flood of virtual photons is greater on one
side that they can actually push a body of mass. It states that the
distance between the aforementioned two bodies is complicit in the
cancellation of the creation of virtual photons, thereby decreasing the
atmospheric/photonic pressure between them and thereby pulling them
together. ³
While this theory is certainly internally consistent, it is quite complex.
Much more so than, say, the Theory of Gravity. Gravity, much like the
proposed Casimir Force, also tappers off in strength the further away the
bodies of mass are. Gravity, just like the Casimir Force, is an attractive
force. In fact, gravity explains the exact same effect but without the
extraneous suppositions like Quantum Field Theory.
Once more we find ourselves needlessly multiplying strata of interpretation
if we adhere to the conventional wisdom of today’s scholars. Once more we
must ask ourselves if our model truly fits the reality it strives to
describe. Until an experiment is conducted that takes both gravity and
electromagnetic force into consideration by comparing results of identical
conditions on the ground and in zero (or at least reduced) g, using
non-conductive masses, we are left with no choice but to dismiss the
Casimir Force as mere wishful support for an outdated model.
References
- http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/9747 2.
http://www.aip.org/pnu/1996/split/pnu300-3.htm 3.
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/scientists-reverse-casimir-effect-13866.html