Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Non-Sense science
Date: Jan 10, 4:23 pm
Poster: Richard Hull

On Jan 10, 4:23 pm, Richard Hull wrote:

A real treat is in store for those bold enough to seek out and read the American Journal of Physics
#68 (1), Jan 2000 issue. Spanning pages 15 to 32 is a incredulous and often humorous, but well done and referenced article on "Neutrino Physics".

It shines as a one stop porthole or window showing the history of neutrino physics, the complete, who, what, when and where for the entire business.

As I don't hold with about 70% of particle phsyics as currently presented. I especially question the little neutrino and its spawn of quarks, charmed, colored, top, bottom, left and right. These are so handsomely formed from supposition upon supposition each inturn being taken as gospel after an appropiate germination period onto which further supposition is heaped. More corks for the ever leaking dike.

I felt I owed this a fair read. I was most impressed by the thoroughness of the authors in recounting the history of this little invention of Pauli's imagination which Fermi dared to formalize in his paper on Beta decay. However, as a thinking person reads on, there is a point, perhaps half way into the paper, where the mind reels and boggles at the introduction of weirdness after weirdness into the particle physics. The key point is that what was once a pure mathematical tool crafted to predict, soon becomes a self sustaining icon accepted by fiat and consensus and to be protected with new codiciles with each small snag or bump in the road. Never mind the absolute failure to point to anything concrete, viewable or knowable, but instead dream up a new thingy to add which makes everything well again.

The latest grand hurrah is the discovery of a key neutrino (yes, one was not enough) in a 50,000 ton Japanese neutrino detector. Over several years of observation, it is announced with some certainty that 22 neutrino events occured in the giant detector sifted out of the 30-50 million cosmic ray events occuring daily within the device. The bottom line is that they say that the neutrino has a mass equivalence of 14 to 40 or so electron volts. I would just love to know the epitome of this proces!

Anyway, read for yourself. I found myself numbed to the point of despair near the end of the article. So far afield in so short a time and not a voice hardly anywhere crying "This stinks".

Remember, the neutron decays in 10 minutes half life to a proton, electron and a neutrino. The neutron is not a proton and electron we are told. I suppose that key neutrino makes that so.

Mere physical observation is not to be taken as fact. The only really observed entities in this reaction within a detector or bubble chamber are only a proton and electron. The neutrino is assumed, again, by fiat and consensus while the components which do show up to the eye, the proton and electron are ignored as not being the prinicple components of the neutron. We might be forced to think of the neutron as a small hydrogen atom or worse still devise a method of electrostatic binding of the nucleus which would go afoul of the never measured, seen or captured strong and weak forces pipe dreamed years ago.

Richard Hull