This presentation examines electrical phenomena and several aspects of the Electric Universe Theory promoted by Wallace Thornhill.
Transcript:
The Electric Universe – Fact or Fiction? Starting in 2014, I proposed that the Carolina Bays were created from secondary impacts of glacier ice ejected by an extraterrestrial impact on the Laurentide Ice Sheet, and that the oblique impacts created inclined conical cavities that transformed into shallow elliptical bays by viscous relaxation.
Some people have suggested that a plasma cataclysm from a shift in the magnetic field could have created the Carolina Bays and that the bays and similar oval and round patterns worldwide are the most impressive validation of a plasma arc event as explained in the Electric Universe Theory. In this video I will examine electrical phenomena and various aspects of the Electric Universe Theory.
In the mid-18th century, people were trying to understand electricity. Benjamin Franklin conducted an experiment to show that lightning was produced by electricity. He flew a kite during a thunderstorm and was able to produce a spark from a key that he had tied to the string. The experiment was reported in the Pennsylvania Gazette on October 19, 1752.
In 1785, the French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb published three reports of electricity and magnetism. He stated that the magnitude of the electrostatic force of attraction or repulsion between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The force is along the straight line joining them. If the two charges have the same sign, the electrostatic force between them is repulsive; if they have different signs, the force between them is attractive. This is now known as Coulomb's law.
In 1865, James Clerk Maxwell published "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" in which he demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as waves moving at the speed of light. He proposed that light is an electromagnetic phenomenon and this led to his prediction of the existence of radio waves. in December 1894, Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated a radio transmitter and receiver. The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan.
Since the nineteenth century, physicists like Albert Einstein attempted to develop a single mathematical model that describes all fundamental forces and forms of matter. This system would explain electricity, magnetism, gravity and atomic interactions. The theoretical work toward unification still goes on today.
Science has built the foundation for our everyday life. Our infrastructure of electric grids, radio communication towers and satellites makes it possible to light a city at the flick of a switch or to talk to someone on another continent. All this has been achieved by being able to understand and control electricity and magnetism.
Plasma cosmology is a non-standard cosmology that postulates that the dynamics of ionized gases and plasmas play important and dominant roles in the physics of the universe beyond the Solar System. Some theoretical concepts about plasma cosmology originated with Hannes Alfvén, who proposed the use of plasma scaling to extrapolate the results of laboratory experiments up to the largest observable objects in the universe.
Hannes Alfvén was originally trained as an electrical power engineer and later started teaching and doing research in plasma physics and electrical engineering. Alfvén made many contributions to plasma physics, including theories describing the behavior of aurorae, the Van Allen radiation belts, the effect of magnetic storms on the Earth's magnetic field, the terrestrial magnetosphere, and the dynamics of plasmas in the Milky Way galaxy.
We are now ready to examine the Electric Universe Theory. The Electric Universe Theory is not taught in colleges or universities. It is only available in the Electric Universe web site, in conferences organized by the web site, and related YouTube videos. This is already a warning sign that the theory is not widely accepted.
The home page of the web site says that the Electric Universe theory highlights the importance of electricity throughout the Universe. It is based on the recognition of existing natural electrical phenomena, such as lightning and St. Elmo's fire, and the known properties of plasmas or ionized gases which make up 99.999% of the visible universe, and react strongly to electro-magnetic fields. Much of the material considered by the Electric Universe is peer-reviewed, but not all (see Speculative Theories, below). So far, everything looks very standard and not controversial.
The first three topics of the home page are Terrestrial electricity, Electricity in Space and Plasma Importance. The descriptions are very standard. There is nothing to challenge or fight about.
The topic of Space Plasmas does not have anything controversial, but the topic of Laboratory Science rejects several well-established ideas of physics by saying that the Electric Universe is based on the known properties of plasmas, in preference to unproven theoretical physics, and consequently does not require black holes, dark matter and dark energy, neutron stars and the Big Bang.
The topic of Speculative theories goes way out on a limb and proposes that some planetary features, such as craters are produced by cosmic mega-lightning electrical scarring rather than impacts with meteorites, and that the Sun and stars are powered externally electrically. As mentioned in the first paragraph above, this material is not peer-reviewed, so anything goes.
The Electric Universe theory is described as interdisciplinary, integrating and supporting subjects as diverse as the science (astronomy, geology, physics), with the soft sciences such as ancient history and comparative mythology. Hmm! What is a soft science? Do history and mythology have anything to do with science or the scientific method? I don't think so.
The web page takes a defensive position by stating that "Perhaps not surprisingly, the Electric Universe has also become the target of pseudo-skeptics, whose criticisms have consisted of ad hominems, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and labeling as pseudoscience." This is a very strange position to take. Basically, anybody who does not understand or questions the Electric Universe Theory is labeled as a "pseudo-skeptic". This name-calling tactic is frequently used in religions that label non-believers as heathen, heretics, or infidels. Is the Electric Universe religion or science? If it is science, it should be subject to the experimental tests of the scientific method, and such name-calling is unwarranted.
The Thunderbolts Project web site labels itself as a voice for the Electric Universe. Wallace Thornhill, who is a physicist, is one of main personalities associated with the site. He and David Talbott are coauthors of a book about the Electric Universe. The DONATE button appears prominently in each page of the site to help fund the Thonderbolts Project. The link to the YouTube channel has hundreds of videos about the Electric Universe.
I watched an interview with Wallace Thornhill posted by Echan Deravy on May 7 2019. About 4 minutes into the interview Thornhill says: "in fact, of course, one of the complaints is that the electric universe hasn't got a lot of mathematics there's a very good reason for that and that is that the very first thing you must do when you're doing physics, and I emphasize physics, which is all about the physical universe, is to have some physical model in mind, and this is something that is completely lacking in modern science. It's all become mathematical mysticism. and when you realize that simple symbols on the board like e equals mc-squared there is no definition in physics of energy, there is no physical definition of mass and the speed of light is not understood because light itself is not understood, and yet that's the thing that we examine the deep universe with. So, when you realize that, the e equals mc-squared there's no scientist on earth can tell you what it means physically, they should pull their head in."
Half an hour into the interview Thornhill says: "[Gravity is] an effect of an electric force on matter itself. Matter responds by actually distorting slightly. It turns out that both magnetism and gravity are the same kind of force. They're both dipole forces. Now, when I say that, this changes everything because everyone thinks gravity is only attractive and everyone's been wondering how can I produce anti-gravity, as they call it. Well, since its a dipole force, it's just like a magnet. If you can get the two similar poles facing one another they will repel each other and this is what planets do and stars and the rest of all the galaxies.
Forty minutes into the interview, Thornhill says that "it's better to come to the electric universe as a beginner now with an open mind because if you start setting up roadblocks right at the beginning you're gonna have a real struggle. I had the same problem when I started realizing that Einstein is seriously stuffed up science. One of the belief systems today, of course, is science. It is a belief system, first and foremost." Thornhill then says that "The public has to realize that there is an alternative story and be able to compare it against the one they're being fed for all those years, for a century now, and do the comparison themselves and come to their own conclusions"
Michael Shermer attended the Electric Universe conference in June 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona. Shermer was a writer for Scientific American magazine for many years. The general theme of the conference emphasized the role of electricity in space and the negligible contribution of gravity in cosmic events. Speakers stated that Newton was wrong. Einstein was wrong. Black holes do not exist. The big bang never happened. Dark energy and dark matter are unsubstantiated conjectures. Stars are electrically charged plasma masses. And Venus was once a comet. Shermer asked Wallace Thornhill, who is a proponent of the Electric Universe, that if Newton and Einstein are wrong, whether he could generate spacecraft flight paths that are more accurate than those based on gravitational theory? And Thornhill replied "No". Shermer clearly categorizes the Electric Universe as pseudoscience.
One reason for the general skepticism about the Thunderbolts Project and the Electric Universe Theory is that the videos are not peer reviewed. There are hundreds of videos. All the of them contain advertisements, and with 158,000 subscribers the videos probably produce a substantial revenue stream. The videos contain a mixture of facts, fantasy and bald-faced lies. Viewers who don't have a good foundation in science may be unable to distinguish the facts from the lies.
A video published in 2018 illustrates a catastrophic bombardment by asteroids and claims that electrical discharges are more important for crater formation. Here is a quote from the video: "The craters we observe on the moon emphasize the need for radically new theoretical pathways in planetary science. One mystery that the impact hypothesis will never explain is the extreme circularity of the vast majority of lunar craters." Whoever made that video was completely incompetent. There is no mystery here. Astronomers have known for a long time why most impact craters are circular and there is no evidence whatsoever that electric discharges have any role in the process.
Two years earlier, another Thunderbolts Project video featuring Astronomer Barry Setterfield described precisely why impact craters are circular. He said: "In the case of an actual impact, as the impactor penetrates the surface, it pushes ahead of it an increasingly large plug of matter that becomes intensely hot and under high pressure. Eventually the pressures involved reach something like 200,000 atmospheres and this stops the plug of intensely hot material, and then a massive explosion occurs. It doesn't matter what direction the meteorite comes from, the focus of the explosion forms a circular crater around that."
Electrical discharges can create cavities. The heat of an electric spark evaporates and ionizes material, but the cavities formed do not have the same characteristics as impact cavities. In particular, cavities made by impacts produce shock metamorphism from the high pressure of the projectile compression, whereas electrical discharges splatter molten material around the cavity. Electrical processes are used in modern arc welding and automobile assembly lines.
Mainstream science does not ignore electrical phenomena. In October of 2017, NASA published some research indicating that solar eruptions could electrify Martian moons. According to the report, powerful solar eruptions could electrically charge areas of the Martian moon Phobos to hundreds of volts, presenting a complex electrical environment that could possibly affect sensitive electronics carried by future robotic explorers, according to a new NASA study. The study also considered electrical charges that could develop as astronauts transit the surface on potential human missions to Phobos."
The Martian moon Phobos is directly exposed to the solar wind, a stream of electrically charged particles constantly blowing off the surface of the Sun. According to a new simulation, the interaction of the solar wind with Phobos creates a complex electrical environment that statically charges the moon's night side.
Were the Carolina Bays made by thunderbolts or electrical discharges? Absolutely not! The elliptical shape of the bays indicates that they originated as inclined conical cavities. The raised rims are a characteristic of impacts because impact cratering displaces material laterally by horizontal compressive forces and ejects debris ballistically to produce stratigraphically uplifted rims.
Electrical discharges from lightning can form tubes or masses of fused soil called fulgurites that retain the shape of the lightning bolt. None of these natural structures are like the cavities made by Electrical Discharge Machining experiments.
Don't waste your time trying to learn about the Electric Universe. The videos in the Thunderbolts Project may contain some scientific facts, but they also steer you away from the foundations that built our modern society and they misguide you about how the universe works. If you really want to learn about electricity, take some physics or electrical engineering courses. Many free courses are offered online by prestigious universities. These courses will give you the practical knowledge to change your life, but you will have to study hard and learn mathematics. You will learn real science.
