The following text will aboard a series of theoretical concepts leading to more practical and useful ideas. Light, what is it really? How does it work? Light has created significant controversy in the past few years, fueling many debates. The main interrogation was if whether or not light is made of something tangible or if it is only energy, a force, like the sound for example. In conclusion, (I think) the scientific community agreed on the fact that light is energy and not particles (also known as photons). But light still bugs us a bit, since it doesn’t behave like sound at all; sound can only travel with matter acting as a medium whereas light can travel in free space and easily thru matter, depending on the materials and the wavelengths. Here’s an example that seconds the theory about light: When you throw a stone in water, the impact will create ripples. Well, since light travels like sound (in a spherical fashion), or somewhat like the ripples on the water, trying to capture ‘’photons’’ would be like trying to capture the stone in the ripples; only a fool would lose his time trying to do so. Light is energy, light is vectors. Light can’t be stored but can be transformed. Light is life. Then what is the equivalent of the stone in a lake to light? A bit more complicated, since our understanding of the atom is still unsure. If you ask me, I’d say that light is a window to the very heart of the atom. When you ignite a piece of wood, why does it produce light? First, try to picture matter (atoms) as cubes of all the same size. The heavier the atom, the fuller the cube would be, like a cubic room with a few or a lot of furniture. Now, let’s go back to the piece of wood, which would be a series of cubes (of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon mostly) bond together with electrons, also known as electricity. So let’s pretend there’s a 1000 cubes in that piece of wood, it means there would be roughly 900 and something doors in between the cubic rooms. So thru the process of heating, each cube (atoms) will eventually separate itself from the piece of wood, and each time it does so, it would leave temporary holes on the atoms, previously stated as windows to the very heart of the atom. Of course the atom fills it’s hole(s) very quickly with his electrons so you need to constantly break molecules if you want the light (and the fire) to go on, and if it doesn’t explodes, it’s because you haven’t pierced its nucleus, but only it’s outer shell. What is gravity? How does it work? Gravity is also quite a misunderstood concept, since no one has ever been to the very center of the Earth (besides some reflected waves), and hopefully no one will ever go, for the sake of all of us (haven’t you heard about the Balrog in the Moria?) What we all know is that every single piece of matter is attracted to the center of the Earth. One could say the core is a giant magnet, but I personally doubt that very much, since not only metals respond to gravity but every single atom. But magnets do respond stronger than anything else to Earth’s magnetic field, since they’re overcharged with electrons. What happens is that they’re vectors superpose themselves, therefor the ‘’positive’’ side of a compass will always point the geographical north (more precisely the magnetic south). Before I keep on going on the subject, let’s talk about the mass: What is mass? Mass is only a concept, like time can be. Time doesn’t really exist, there’s no godly hourglass going on; a day is equal to the time it takes for Earth to rotate on its own axis, that’s about it. Then what is mass? Mass is a force before anything, which fluctuate depending on where it’s located; a pound on Earth doesn’t weight a pound on the Moon (so they say). For example, if a pumpkin weights a pound, it’s because it’s attracted to the center of the Earth; put the same pumpkin in outer space, it weights nothing, but the force remains. Another example: ask a kid to punch you and you will feel a force equal to a few ounces; ask a professional boxer to punch you in the face, it will feel like a ton, or like hell. So matter is attracted to the center of the Earth, and the stronger the attraction, the heavier the object feels. If the center of the Earth isn’t a magnet, what is it, and what part of the atom does it attract? I believe that the center of the Earth sucks electricity, which would explain (not entirely) why heat goes up: when matter is set on fire, it doesn’t lose all its electricity (electrons), what happens is a disturbance of its magnetic field, of its vectors (which is why fire is very chaotic). When the needle of a compass indicates the south magnetic pole, it’s because it’s magnetized, or ‘’vectorized’’, which makes it more sensible to the magnetic field of the Earth, it’s vectors. So if iron is heavier than helium (or more sensible to gravity), it’s only because it possess more electrons, the nucleus (protons and neutrons) being more of a ‘’reservoir’’. If the center of the Earth attracts electricity then shoot it back, what could it possibly be? Clearly not a simple giant magnet. Then what? I believe it is something extraordinary, something that never appeared in a classic book so far. No one can tell for sure, but if you ask me to make a wild guess, I’d say it’s part black hole and part star which have attained a perfect harmony, like a happy couple. The very center of the Earth would be the black hole with magma (magnetized star) acting as the outer shell, therefor protecting the Earth to collapse on herself (isn’t Earth very much alive in her own way?) A dead mass, for example a simple rock, won’t attract another simple and smaller rock, not even if it’s a 1 000 000 000 000 000 times heavier, since their charge is equivalent (the furniture in the cubic rooms is equal for both rocks, therefor there will be no interaction, the big rock simply has more cubic rooms than the smaller one). Moreover, I believe that the ozone layer (and subsequent layers) acts like a Van de Graff sphere, accumulating tremendous amounts of electrons until the point it just can’t hold it back from the center of the Earth, resulting a series of thunder strikes. The more practical part: When an astronaut goes into outer space, why does he gets weaker and weaker very quickly to the ultimate point of death? I believe it has everything to do with the magnetic field, the vectors. When you leave Earth’s gravity (therefor it’s magnetic field), the chemistry of your body cannot renew itself using the magnetic field of the Earth (since you’re out of reach), which is why your body will shrink really quickly; it’s eating itself. Doing exercise helps, since your body transform the energy stocked in food into electricity, your muscles acting like magnetized matter (a bit like a homemade compass where you rub a piece of cloth on a needle, your muscles being the needle and food the piece of cloth), but it’s far from enough. Being in outer space without a substitute to Earth’s core is somewhat similar to put a fish in stagnant water; it will die quickly, no matter what food you give him; it needs a current, a flow, vectors. What could possibly replace the center of the Earth in outer space? I would guess that Nicholas Tesla was born a bit too soon and was the closest to the answer with his famous Tesla Coil. Truly yours, O. Triolet
