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Expansion theory is a name used by Canadian-born electrical engineer Mark McCutcheon for the ideas presented in his 2002 self-published book The Final Theory (Rethinking Our Scientific Legacy). McCutcheon promotes an all-embracing hypothesis of accelerating expansion of massive bodies to explain not only gravity, but also light, electro-magnetism, and quantum mechanics. An engineers degree is an academic degree which is intermediate in rank between a masters degree and a doctorate; it is occasionally to be encountered in the United States in technical fields. ... Prism splitting light Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye or, in a technical or scientific setting, electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength. ... Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field: a field, encompassing all of space, composed of the electric field and the magnetic field. ... Fig. ...

The idea is not new, although it sometimes goes by other names, such as "Divergent Matter Theory". For example, it was advocated in a self-published document by O. Hilgenberg in 1933, and more recently in a self-published book by James Carter in 1970, and in self-published web sites by Ken (Joe) Fisher, N. E. Markov, Miles Mathis, James Copple, Noel Hodson, Lawrence J. DeSimone Jr, and many others. (See References and Related links below.) In addition, the concept was mentioned in 1997 by Scott Adams in his humor book, The Dilbert Future. 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Scott Adams (born June 8, 1957) is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several business commentaries, social satires, and experimental philosophy books. ... The Dilbert Future (1997) is a gloves-off satire of humanity by Scott Adams that breaks the net motivations of humanity down into stupidity, selfishness, and horniness, and presents various ideas for profiting off of human nature. ...

The hypothesis has received no attention in the scientific literature, because although it occurs to just about every scientifically inclined person at some early point in their lives, the self-evident inconsistencies between this concept and the observed phenomena of nature lead them to discard the idea. Hence the idea is not taken seriously by many people.

Expansion

Expansion theory states that all materials are expanding at all times at an accelerating rate. There is no deeper explanation of this, implying that this is an empirically determined law. That is, a set of axiomatic rules which appear to replicate observations, without being derived from or motivated by deeper explanations. (Newton's 'attractive force' gravity rules are of this type, but Einstein's General Relativity is not, being derived from more fundamental assumptions.) The empirical evidence is the observation that near the Earth's surface, objects fall at an accelerating rate (the observation that Newton interpreted as the mutually attractive force of gravity). ... In epistemology, an axiom is a self-evident truth upon which other knowledge must rest, from which other knowledge is built up. ... In physics, the newton (symbol: N) is the SI unit of force, named after Sir Isaac Newton in recognition of his work on classical mechanics. ... Two-dimensional visualization of space-time distortion. ...

Gravity

Expansion Theory states that all materials, regardless of density, expand at a given rate that is constant throughout the Universe, and that this explains how objects 'drop' near the Earth's surface. Density (symbol: ρ - Greek: rho) is a measure of mass per unit of volume. ...

This premise implies an acceleration of gravity proportional to the size of an object, rather than to the mass of an object, so it is immediately falsified empirically. The premise also implies an acceleration of gravity that is independent of distance, rather than decreasing as the inverse square of the distance, so it is again immediately falsified empirically. In addition, the premise does not account for closed orbits, i.e., if attraction were due to mutual expansion, then objects should not circle one another, because expansion is a purely radial effect. McCutcheon attempts to account for orbits by introducing the following:

The "New First Law of Motion"

Objects always either move towards each other or travel in curving or orbiting trajectories about one another due to their mutual expansion.

No justification or explanation of this "law" is offered, and it certainly does not follow from the basic premise of expansion. It amounts to nothing more than "saving the phenomena" by fiat. The fact remains that expansion theory is grossly in conflict with the simplest observational facts of gravity, such as orbits.

According to McCutcheon, the entire Universe expands at rate a, while all particles expand at radial rate 1/2 a. Furthermore, all moving bodies travel in open spirals rather than straight lines, but appear to travel in straight lines over short distances. As the atoms composing the Universe expand, the relative expansion between the Universe itself and particles within it is a - 1/2 a = 1/2 a. McCutcheon argues that this "explains" the relative distance traveled by all accelerated objects, giving the well-known formula 1/2 at^2, as well as the apparent gravitational force between all objects in the Universe and the appearance of closed-loop orbits rather than open spirals.

The source of the spiral motion (McCutcheon argues) might be something as simple as universal rotation. Just as the Coriolis effect on the rotating Earth causes spiral weather patterns to form, so the spiral motion of all bodies in the Universe might be caused by rotation of the entire Universe itself. Hurricane Isabel east of the Bahamas on September 15, 2003. ...

Atomic forces

The Expansion Theory description of atomic forces is similar to its description of gravity. However, the nuclei must expand faster than macroscopic matter in expansion theory to produce an apparent electrostatic force much stronger than the apparent gravitational force. The difficulty in explaining how macroscopic objects can be expanding slower than the atoms they are composed of is explained by McCutcheon by proposing different spatial dimensions in the subatomic and macroscopic realms (also see deus ex machina). Ironically, this resembles string theory, something dismissed at the outset of the book. Properties For alternative meanings see atom (disambiguation). ... Macroscopic means measurable and observable by the naked eye; describes existence as we perceive it. ... Electrostatics is the branch of physics that deals with the force exerted by a static (i. ... Deus ex machina (plural dei ex machinis) is Latin for god from the machine and is a calque from the Greek από μηχανής θεός, (pronounced apo mekhanes theos). It originated with Greek and Roman theater, when a mechane would lower a god or gods onstage to resolve a hopeless situation. ... String theory is a model of fundamental physics whose building blocks are one-dimensional extended objects (strings) rather than the zero-dimensional points (particles) that are the basis of the Standard Model of particle physics. ...

Note that this description requires that protons and electrons have no apparent electrical charge, a concept harking back to classical mechanics, but not supported by experimental data. The apparent existence of electro-static forces between macroscopic objects is explained via colliding surplus electrons expanding into space. Electro-static attraction is explained in the same way though if one body has more surplus electrons than the other the bodies would apparently attract. This apparently violates Newton's laws of motion, which is acceptable since expansion theory claims to have superseded them.

A great number of quantum mechanical concepts such as non-commutable observables, operator eigenfunctions, and state superposition are not addressed by expansion theory in any fashion at this time. Mathematical meaning In mathematics, especially abstract algebra, a binary operation on a set S is commutative if for all x and y in S. Otherwise, the operation is noncommutative. ... In mathematics, an operator is some kind of function; if it comes with a specified type of operand as function domain, it is no more than another way of talking of functions of a given type. ...

Probabilistic description

Expansion theory states that electrons continually bounce off the nucleus, travel some distance out until the nucleus expands to catch up with them and then the process is repeated. Mark McCutcheon argues that the electron's position can be described probabilistically, most likely being found at the top of its arc. This does not accord even with spherical atomic orbitals, and the geometries of higher-level orbitals are not dealt with in expansion theory at this time. This present model also does not attempt to account for fermionic or bosonic statistics. Fermions, named after Enrico Fermi, are particles which form totally-antisymmetric composite quantum states. ... Bosons, named after Satyendra Nath Bose, are particles which form totally-symmetric composite quantum states. ...

Light in the expansion theory

The phenomenon of light is explained with (expanding) clusters of electrons. The size of each cluster denotes the color of the light (interpreted in mainstream physics as an electromagnetic wave frequency). An argument advanced against the mainstream theory of electromagnetism is the claim that a light bulb violates the first law of thermodynamics. The The Final Theory's model of light does not account for the constructive fringes in the double slit experiment at this stage. Prism splitting light Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye or, in a technical or scientific setting, electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength. ... Properties The electron is a fundamental subatomic particle which carries a negative electric charge. ... Electromagnetic radiation is a propagating wave in space with electric and magnetic components. ... Quadrupole (four-pole) magnet, focus particle beams in a particle accelerator. ... The double-slit experiment consists of letting light diffract through two slits producing fringes on a screen. ...

While no account of the mass of these new electrons was given within Expansion Theory it is a fair assumption, given the description of atomic dynamics, that said mass is probably non-zero. If this were the case then the mass of the Universe would be many orders of magnitude more than it currently is measured to be, dark energy or not. This, however, would shed no further light on the question of the eventual fate of the Universe given that the big bang model and the Robertson-Walker metric are both based on the Einstein field equations, objects refuted by expansion theory. Mass is a property of physical objects that, roughly speaking, measures the amount of matter they contain. ... In cosmology, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy which permeates all of space and has strong negative pressure. ... According to the Big Bang theory, the universe originated in an extremely dense and hot state (bottom). ... The Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric describes a homogeneous, isotropic expanding/contracting universe. ... For other topics related to Einstein see Einstein (disambig) In physics, the Einstein field equation or the Einstein equation is a tensor equation in the theory of gravitation. ...

Other features of expansion theory

Since McCutcheon does not define energy to include GPE he believes that a falling body produces energy 'from nothing', and violates the first law of thermodynamics. Since falling can be used to produce energy 'from nothing' he argues that the mainstream's gravity model would allow the construction of an unlimited energy supply. There is no such perpetual energy machine, and The Final Theory contends that this highlights a contradiction in the standard physical model (between gravity and thermodynamics). The book does deal with the problem of separating two bodies once they have collided within the perpetual energy machine. Potential energy (U, or Ep), a kind of scalar potential, is energy by virtue of matter being able to move to a lower-energy state, releasing energy in some form. ... The Final Theory is a book written by Mark McCutcheon regarding his Grand Unified Physics theory known as expansion theory. ...

Strengths and weaknesses of expansion theory

Strong points

The expansion theory expounded by McCutcheon has no strong points. Others have explained how, with sufficient ingenuity, it is possible to describe general relativity in terms that bear some resemblance to the concept of expanding matter (since, after all, the surface of the Earth actually IS accelerating outward at 1g with respect to the local inertial rest frame), but once the required mapping of concepts has been accomplished, one arrives at general relativity. The concept of expanding matter, by itself, is not adequate to account for even the most commonplace phenomena of gravitation.

Weak points

• There is no rational explanation of how the motion of a particle, or the trajectory of a satellite, can be affected by the ostensible gravitational field of an expanding body.
• It relies entirely on a totally ad hoc "first law of motion", whose content is simply "Things behave the way they do, despite the fact that their behavior is logically incompatible with the expansion hypothesis".
• The weak nuclear force is not explained in McCutcheon's theory.
• Although Expansion Theory identifies the electron as the building block of all matter, it doesn't provide any description of the electron itself. Particularly, it doesn't explain how electrons can have mass sometimes (as in atoms) and sometimes not (as photons).

The weak nuclear force or weak interaction is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. ...

List of observed effects that contradict expansion theory

• Planetary orbits and all other celestial phenomena.
• Expansion theory claims that traveling at speed of light presents no theoretical problems. No resolution of causality violations are presented by the theory.
• Any molecular orbital that is not of a spherical configuration cannot be explained via expansion theory.
• Quantization of angular momentum, spin and the Stern-Gerlach experiment are not dealt with in any fashion and there appears no way that expansion theory can be generalized to include these results. This implies that should expansion theory ever be proved it would still not be the theory of everything it claims to be given that something external to Expansion Theory would have to be used to explain the above results.
• Quantization of anything that is not mass.
• The uncertainty principle between non-commuting observables. Given the overwhelmingly classical nature of expansion theory it is a fair assumption that the position and momentum of a particle can be measured precisely in the framework of expansion theory. This not only violates the uncertainty principle but also raises questions about the square-integerability of the wave functions used to describe the particles.
• Fermionic and bosonic statistics are not dealt with in the framework of Expansion Theory. The theory implicitly assumes Boltzmann statistics given that it doesn't explain the nature of spin in any way.
• The perihelion shift of mercury.
• Pair production.
• An object's mass does not increase via the corresponding mass of the number of electrons absorbed when light is absorbed by an object.
• Quantum tunneling is not addressed by expansion theory and can't be easily generalized to encompass it.
• Quantum field theory.

The philosophical concept of causality or causation refers to the set of all particular causal or cause-and-effect relations. ... The term orbital has several meanings: In physics and chemistry it is used to describe an atomic electron configuration, see also molecular orbital and atomic orbital. ... In physics, angular momentum is analogous to (linear) momentum except that it applies to rotating objects. ... The terms spin and SPIN have several meanings, including those primarily discussed as spinning: For spin in sub-atomic physics, see spin (physics) For the stalled aircraft maneuver or any of several forms of loss of control in aircraft, see spin (flight) For the periodical, see Spin Magazine For the... In quantum mechanics, the Stern-Gerlach experiment, named after Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach, is a celebrated experiment in 1920 on deflection of particles, often used to illustrate basic principles of quantum mechanics. ... In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, sometimes called the Heisenberg indeterminacy principle (a title prefered by Niels Bohr - see quantum indeterminacy), expresses a limitation on accuracy of (nearly) simultaneous measurement of observables such as the position and the momentum of a particle. ... Commuting is the process of traveling between a place of residence and a place of work. ... In physics, particularly in quantum physics a system observable is a property of the system state that can be determined by some sequence of physical operations. ... The word classical has several meanings: Pertaining to the societies of the classical antiquity, ancient Greece or Rome. ... In the most restricted usage in quantum mechanics, the wavefunction associated with a particle such as an electron, is a complex-valued square integrable function ψ defined over a portion of space and normalized in such a way that In Max Borns probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction, the amplitude squared... Fermions, named after Enrico Fermi, are particles which form totally-antisymmetric composite quantum states. ... Bosons, named after Satyendra Nath Bose, are particles which form totally-symmetric composite quantum states. ... Ludwig Boltzmann Ludwig Boltzmann (February 20, 1844 – September 5, Austrian physicist famous for the invention of statistical mechanics. ... The terms spin and SPIN have several meanings, including those primarily discussed as spinning: For spin in sub-atomic physics, see spin (physics) For the stalled aircraft maneuver or any of several forms of loss of control in aircraft, see spin (flight) For the periodical, see Spin Magazine For the... This article is about several astronomical terms (apogee & perigee, aphelion & perihelion, generic equivalents based on apsis, and related but rarer terms. ... Pair production refers to the creation of an elementary particle and its antiparticle. ... Quantum tunneling is the quantum-mechanical effect of transitioning through a classically-forbidden energy state. ... Quantum field theory (QFT) is the application of quantum mechanics to fields. ...

Acceptance within scientific community

No grade school, high school, or university teaches expansion theory, nor have any peer-reviewed scientific publications considered this theory. Some of the reasons for this are:

• The theory is grossly in conflict with commonplace observations.
• The theory is far from a complete description of many experimental results. In its current form it is contradicted by more evidence than the scientific theories it hopes to replace.
• The theory is intended to create a paradigm shift in our understanding of the physical world, yet McCutcheon's book does not appear to explain anomalous data, as Einstein did, nor does it make falsifiable predictions. A standard requirement of a scientific theory is that it be falsifiable.
• No useful information, predictions of technology could be derived from expansion theory.

Given the large number of apparent contradictions to the Expansion Theory's model that are observed in nature it appears that no new data are required to contradict it. Therefore belief in it is presently a matter of conviction in the face of the evidence. It remains to be seen whether theoretical revisions can better fit the facts, or whether belief in it can persist despite the shortcoming of not matching the data. A paradigm shift is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his famous 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to describe the process and result of a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science. ... Falsifiability is an important concept in the philosophy of science that amounts to the apparently paradoxical idea that a proposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit the possibility of it being false. ... Epistemology, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. ...

A common observation that would appear to contradict the theory is that the space between objects (for instance Sun and Earth) is not constantly shrinking. If all objects are expanding in a fixed amount of space then we would soon collide with the Sun, but we do not. McCutcheon argues that space itself is expanding with the matter it contains but macroscopic dimensions are either: (a) expanding exactly as fast as the matter within them, or (b) expanding more slowly. If (a) is true, it is equivalent to a shift of co-ordinate system, yielding no measurable effect, and in case (b) all gaps should shrink, when in fact, they do not.

See also

• The mainstream view of physics

A theory of everything (TOE) is a theory of theoretical physics and mathematics that fully explains and links together all known physical phenomena (i. ...

External links

• The Final Theory's website
• An email chain Dave Ruske and McCutcheon
• Divergent Matter Theory Ken (Joe Fischer) 1996
• Gravity - An Alternative Theory, James Copple, 1999
• Expansion=Gravitation by N.E.Markov, 2001
• The Third Wave - A Redefinition of Gravity, by Miles Mathis

References

• McCutcheon, Mark (2002) The Final Theory: Rethinking our Scientific Legacy, Universal Publishers. ISBN 1-58112-601-8

• Hilgenberg, O. C. (1933) Vom Wachsenden Erdball, Published By the Author in Berlin. Unknown