Quantum Theory

          The quantum theory is concerned with the behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and sub-atomic level. It is mainly rooted in the idea that everything is available in discrete amounts, which Max Planck came to be aware of. He found out that the frequency(of a wave of energy) and the energy it carries are proportional. In mathematics, when two proportional subjects are expressed, they are considered as being equal to each other with a constant factor. Thus the equation : E = hf, where E is the energy, f the frequency and h the constant which was discovered by Planck thus carrying his name.

       

         Without getting into much technical detail, the theory showed that waves of certain frequencies must carry certain amounts of energy. Visible light, along with the entire electromagnetic spectrum, are energy-carrying waves. The spectrum features waves of varying frequencies and wavelengths. So one can say that ultraviolet waves carry more energy than visible light waves, and infrared waves carry more than radio waves.

         

          This discovery was put into good use. At the beginning of the 20th century, a famous experiment was conducted. An electrical circuit, with a power supply, was opened by cutting the loop of wire to have two detached ends. Each end of the wire was tied with a small metal plate. Between those 2 ends was a tube, inside the tube was vacuum. The system was exposed to a light of variable frequency. When they shone bright blue light (high frequency), current passed. This meant that some electrons passed through this vacuum from one end of the wire to the other. The electrons actually took sufficient energy to escape from their atoms, and get attracted to the positive end of the wire to go into the circuit and produce a current. Only thing is, when bright red light was shone, no current passed at all. This meant that the electrons needed a minimum specific amount of energy to escape from their shells, which was not provided by red light, even with a source that's much brighter no electrons will pass. The equation shows that the only factor here is the frequency, but scientists were looking for a more physical explanation.

       

         Albert Einstein came to know of the results of that experiment, and had a very convincing explanation, which he received the noble prize for in 1905. Einstein said that photons-the virtual building units of light-each carry a specific amount of energy. An electron can be struck with only one photon at a time, and absorb its energy. The reason why a highly intense red light could not produce any current in the experiment is due to the fact that each single photon has the same amount of energy in that of a faint red light. However a blue light's photons will have much more energy than that of the red light photon's, thus giving current. If we use ultraviolet radiation, we will have more current, because as the frequency increases so does the energy carried. Two or more photons can never strike the same electron and combine their energies to set it free.

       This opened doors for many advancements in quantum theory, quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, even a bold approach to describe gravity in terms of quantum laws. The theory of gravity, as known from Newton, came to be corrected in Einstein's theory of relativity when it suggested a model of how gravity works, something Newton never came across. He was able to describe its effects with the greatest accuracy, but never really told us the reason it's there. We'll be discussing Einstein's theories next.

           

How the universe was created

               Through the grand scientific advancements and technological leaps that happened in the early 20th century, scientists were able to observe the universe in a more sophisticated manner, and conclude how the universe that we know today was created. They started measuring distances between planets, stars, and even entire galaxies (by detecting the wavelengths of their emission spectrum) only to find that with time these distances actually increase, hence suggesting that the universe is expanding. This completely threw the idea of a static universe out of the window and gave birth to what we know today as the "Big Bang Theory" as coined by Fred Hoyle who had a hard time believing the theory himself.

             
        The theory suggests that, since the universe is expanding, it must have been infinitely small when it started. The rate of expansion decreases with time, but with an inverse square proportionality (thus never reaching zero). The static universe theory was a model that stood for thousands of years, and this revolutionary discovery was met with skepticism for some scientists. Fred Hoyle was at the top of this list. Theories after another mostly declined the necessity of divine intervention, until this one. This theory came to suggest that the universe had a start, and that it had not been like that forever. In fact it went through multiple stages to become the universe we know today.

               
    Hoyle, being an atheist himself, disapproved of the theory that suggested the universe had a beginning (which must have been triggered somehow by some force/being), due to his belief that no such divine force exists. Science always wins though, and the theory was tested numerously ever since and never failed in any of the trials. Because Hoyle was so tied to his belief, he came to oppose what happened to be the greatest scientific discovery of the 20th century.

       
        Is the big bang theory a conclusive evidence that God exists? Umm.. I'm afraid not. It did give us probabilities though. If the rate of expansion at the time of the ultimate explosion was less by the tiniest fraction, the universe would have collapsed again into itself and repeated the process forever, expanding and collapsing instantly for eternity. In fact, the number calculated happened to be exactly the number needed (minimum number) to expand and keep expanding till this day. Every number, every cosmological constant is so precisely accurate that the tiniest alteration in any of them would result in a total chaos, a universe -unlike ours- far from perfect. It seems something desired the universe to be the way it is, maybe it desired itself too, who knows??

         
     If a God created the universe, I would not be surprised He made it that way. A God is omnipotent, and it seems logical that with one little burst He could create a whole universe without the need of His intervention again, why would He bother to anyway? An intelligent being gets maximum work done with minimum effort needed, why would that not be the characteristic of the genius that created it all? Why must it be interpreted that God is holding the universe between His hands and works on it continuously intervening every now and then? If so, I think we would've been used to seeing miracles on a regular basis.

       
     "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, is that it is comprehensible" - Albert Einstein. 

                     

                    

Reality as we don't know it..

        Since about the start of my teenage years, I started thinking outside the box I was put in the day I was born. It was weird for the first time, but when I got used to doing so I finally realized that it's only natural to think with no boundaries, and I came to be aware of things I never thought of before (or perhaps neglected). The time you'll take to be enlightened with this awareness depends on how curious you are.

         As human beings, it is of innate behavior that we are curious. No one learns to be curious throughout their lives, you are born that way. As babies we are fond of any strange thing that pops up from sounds and noises to interesting motions or behaviors of complex systems (such as metal cans flying right above us). However you can 'deactivate' that 'feature'. With years and years of mouth-feeding you get from school, it would be a miracle that you still have one tiny bit of curiosity, as once said by Einstein. We simply start depending on others to teach us, we know that we're gonna know, sooner or later (or at least think so).. So why bother to ask questions to ourselves? Most probably because you get deluded by the idea that you'll learn it at the right time of your life, or simply because it would be too tiresome, you're already getting enough education to work on and the only extra time you got is for leisure and relaxation.

        People with a background in popular science, or particularly physics will find the title of the blog very familiar. For those of you who aren't, "The Theory of Everything" is simply a theory that is in the making which will explain and predict any event inside the universe. Like many other theories, it has to be proven first (with a set of equations and experimental success), and the only viable candidate for such a theory is called "M-theory" (The M stands for nothing though!). Newton did NOT discover gravity, he was only able to prove it by a set of equations and laws that are derived from those equations. Newton used mathematics to prove his theory, and so has every scientist ever since. Many theories have come up through the ages, countless of them failed to be proven and thus have no place in our science textbooks this present day.

         For a person to be truly educated, one has to temporarily neutralize themselves from any mental bias they have towards anything. And when I said truly educated I meant literally to base all their knowledge on truths and facts rather than opinions or beliefs. That is something that my father-a journalist-taught me in my earlier years. One can never have one source of truth to depend on for everything. 

         I won't be emphasizing much on how one could be 'truly' educated, because I myself still have a long way to do so. I was born into an Egyptian Muslim family of some tradition, and will always be limited if I think with that identity. I must have another one, a blank mental I.D, one that I use only to think with, the other to identify the physical me. Same should go to anybody. Even atheists do so by denying the possibility of the existence of a supreme entity, declaring the universe with all its wonders came by itself with no real evidence. 

         Now what? Simply ask yourself questions that would be awkward to ask in front of your parents/friends, nobody will know what's going on inside that head of yours. There will never be one single truth, but several logical suggestions that pour down into one flowing river. Just think how Hitler's troops were so confident in what they're doing, how they fought with him, killing many innocents with no regrets. You could say that he 'brainwashed' them. Why could that not be you right now, except that you are not brainwashed by a warlord, but subconsciously by your beliefs and/or tradition? What makes you so confident (if at all) that you are right and everybody's wrong? This greatly hinders the curious mind you were given, because whenever such thoughts arise you completely shut them. Rather than striving to prove your righteous position, open up and see why those people over there are so convinced that Metallica is better than Mozart, or why those guys are living a carefree life with no boundaries, or why those are so extremely self-chained to their religion that they choke themselves with their uptight behavior. You'll find that no answer will be entirely convincing, nor entirely illogical.