In reply to OrionWorks - Steven V Johnson's message of Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:35:50 -0500: Hi, [snip] >I concur that this mass/energy conversion process is probably based on >specific distances involved, as you seem to be implying. Trying to >chart out the unique nexuses points of where these distances seem to >switch back and forth from attractive to repulsive forces seems to be >the trillion dollar question we'd all love answered.
Then I suggest you try taking Charles Cagle seriously. :) According to him like charges attract when the separation distance is less than the De Broglie wavelength in the center of mass frame. If you do the math, then you find that this means that protons attract one another in a nucleus until they have a kinetic energy exceeding about 8 MeV (at a separation distance of 10 fm, i.e. on the outside edge of the nucleus). IOW it neatly explains the nuclear force. Of course, why neutrons appear to be necessary to glue a nucleus together would appear to throw a spanner in the works, unless you consider that neutrons are made of charged quarks, so as they move slower, the range of the attractive force increases, which may be a contributing explain to the question of why the neutron cross section increases as the kinetic energy of the neutron decreases. Of course it would predict that He2 should be stable, which it isn't. (Charles says he has an explanation for this, but I get the impression that it's "hand waving" ;) I wonder if this also explains gravity? (Some small percentage of particles are always in the same CM frame.) Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
