Oliver Heaviside and theoretical physics

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Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925) was an English electrical engineer and physicist best known for reformulating Maxwell's equations. Physicist George Francis Fitzgerald said,

"Maxwell’s treatise is cumbered with the debris of his brilliant lines of assault, of his entrenched camps, of his battles. Oliver Heaviside has cleared those away, has opened up a direct route, has made a broad road, and has explored a considerable tract of country. " (Review of Heaviside's Electrical Papers, 1893)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Heaviside.

Maxwell's equations

"It took me several years before I could understand as much as I possibly could. Then I set Maxwell aside and followed my own course. And I progressed much more quickly… It will be understood that I preach the gospel according to my interpretation of Maxwell." (Quoted in Oliver Heaviside by Paul Nahin)

Mathematics

"In working out physical problems there should be, in the first place, no pretence of rigorous formalism. The physics will guide the physicist along somehow to useful and important results, by the constant union of physical and geometrical or analytical ideas. The practice of eliminating the physics by reducing a problem to a purely mathematical exercise should be avoided as much as possible. The physics should be carried on right through, to give life and reality to the problem, and to obtain the great assistance which the physics gives to the mathematics." (Electromagnetic Theory, 1893)

Theory

"The study of the theory of a physical science should be preceded by some general experimental acquaintance therewith, in order to secure the inimitable advantage of a personal acquaintance with something real and living." (Electromagnetic Theory, 1893)

"Theory always tends to become abstract as it emerges successfully from the chaos of facts by the processes of differentiation and elimination, whereby the essentials and their connections become recognised, whilst minor effects are seen to be secondary or unessential, and are ignored temporarily, to be explained by additional means." (Electromagnetic Theory, 1893)

Reality

"We do not dwell in the Palace of Truth. But, as was mentioned to me not long since, 'There is a time coming when all things shall be found out'. I am not so sanguine myself, believing that the well in which truth is said to reside is really a bottomless pit." (Electromagnetic Theory, 1893)

"There is no absolute scale of size in the Universe, for it is boundless towards the great and also boundless towards the small." (Quoted in On Growth and Form by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson)

Gravity strings: theory of gravity

Sometimes I believe action at a distance (and time dilation at a distance) is impossible. It doesn't make sense that the Earth can cause a force (or time dilation) on the Moon without actually touching the Moon. For this reason, it seems there should be a connecting object that causes gravity. Regarding action at distance, Isaac Newton once said,

"That gravity should be innate, inherent and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance thro' a vacuum, without the mediation of any thing else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers." (Letters to Bentley, 1692-1693)

To address this issue, I created a theory where gravity is caused by subatomic strings (gravity strings) that pull objects together. I dont actually believe this theory, but it serves as a possible template to think action at a distance. Below I've listed a few principles about gravity strings.

1. Only objects with mass can shoot out gravity strings.
2. Gravity strings are made of subatomic massless particles.
3. Massive objects can dispense more gravity strings that can go further distances.
4. The loose end of a gravity string searches for matter to attach to.
5. Once attached to an object, a gravity string pulls the object towards itself.
6. A gravity string forms a straight line between two objects similar to a taught rope.
7. Gravity strings are extremely thin allowing them to easily pass through larger objects.
8. Gravity strings can pass through each other because each string has alternating segments of even smaller matter.
9. Every galaxy contains a web of gravity strings that connect solar systems together.

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