What if the very foundation of how we understand light and time is based on a misunderstanding? Let’s explore the paradox that Einstein sought to resolve and uncover a simpler way to make sense of light and time. To do that, we need to step back and examine how we got here.
The Null Result
It began in 1887 when Michelson and Morley sought to measure the Earth’s motion through the universe. At that time, scientists presumed that, like soundwaves through air, light traveled as a wave through an invisible medium called “aether.” The Earth was also believed to travel through the aether, creating an invisible aether wind that we couldn’t detect.
The experiment was designed to detect the aether wind by measuring variations in the speed of light depending on the Earth’s direction of travel. It would work like an ultrasonic anemometer, which measures wind speed using ultrasonic sound waves. Because sound travels slower upwind than it does downwind, measuring the time it takes for sound to travel to different ends of the device provides an accurate measure of wind speed and direction.
However, Michelson and Morley’s attempt to measure changes in the speed of light, despite Earth traveling in opposite directions at different times of the year, observed no such changes in the speed of light. In science, it’s known as a “null result.”
The Problem
Immediately the notion that light was a wave that propagates through an aether fell out of favor. Light appeared to be a particle moving through free space; a photon. However, Michelson-Morley presented another problem. The speed of the photon appeared to be the same regardless of any observer’s relative motion.
- Normally, in classical mechanics, relative motion would affect the measured speed of an object. If you’re moving toward or away from a photon, you’d expect to see a change in its measured speed based on your own velocity relative to it.
- However, the Michelson-Morley experiment (and others) suggests that no matter your relative motion, you always measure the same speed of light. This defies classical intuition.
If Bob measures a photon moving at 100 m/s northward (real photons move much faster, but let’s simplify) and you’re moving north at 90 m/s relative to Bob, classical expectations say you’d measure the photon moving past you at 10 m/s. Instead, you also measure it at 100 m/s—the same speed Bob measured.
This bizarre apparent motion of a photon made space and time seem elastic. Einstein resolved the discrepancy by proposing that time “dilated” (or slowed down) for objects moving at high velocities. From this perspective, the photon appears to zip by at the same speed for both you and Bob because your rate of time changes. In your frame, where time runs slower due to dilation, the photon still covers its distance at the invariant speed of light, c.
The Illusion
If we remember that time is not a bendy substance but represents comparative motion—how one motion relates to another, like comparing the rotation of the Earth to the flow of sand in an hourglass—we immediately run into a problem. We can’t actually observe a photon’s motion to compare it to anything.
Our only observations of light come directly from emitter-detector interactions. What we measure isn’t the photon’s motion but its effect when it reaches the detector. This means that our understanding of light’s speed is entirely inferred, built on assumptions and indirect measurements. These interpretations, however, rely on assumptions that contradict an analytical view of time. Time dilation assumes that time itself stretches or compresses to reconcile light’s constant speed with relative motion, but this assumes time is a malleable dimension rather than a comparative measure of motion.
The Solution
When our “photon” leaves the emitter Bob is stationary 100 meters away. It takes one second for the photon to reach Bob, so Bob records the speed as 100 m/s. Now, if you pass Bob in such a way that you detect the photon 200 meters from the emitter at two seconds, regardless of your velocity relative to Bob—whether 90 m/s or 90 million m/s—you also calculate the speed as 100 m/s. That valid interpretation of the experiment is far less mysterious! Why?
All our foundational equations about electromagnetism, going back before Maxwell, were based on radii. Knowing the Earth was moving and rotating during their experiments, scientists couldn’t measure from a fixed point in space. Instead, people like Faraday assumed that processes like induction depended on the distance from the source, not on the total displacement of the source and observer. As a result, the equations defining electromagnetism used r (radii, or relative distance) rather than m (absolute meters from a fixed spatial origin).
Now imagine a circular paper with gradients of color—black at the center, fading to lighter shades toward the edges. This gradient represents the energy density of a field radiating from the emitter. At a distance of r, this energy density corresponds to 1/r. The origin of the field is the emitter, and at any point r along the paper, your eye detects the field intensity when it reaches a threshold.
When the emitter releases light, the paper rotates, and the field slides past your detector. Your eye “sees the light” when it accumulates enough energy density. If your eye is twice as far from the origin, it takes twice as long for the threshold energy to accumulate. Importantly, this process depends only on the relative radial distance from the emitter to the detector, not on the emitter’s or detector’s velocity relative to anything else.
Reenvisioning light as an immediate interaction between two objects rather than a “particle” traveling between them eliminates the need for bendy spacetime because we don’t imagine a particle moving from point A to point B, but the timing of the interaction is wholly governed by the radial distance between emitter and detector. The belief in a “particle traveling between atoms” causes unresolvable paradoxes, but the view that atoms have a relationship governed by their radial distance resolves all of them. This perspective eliminates the need to imagine spacetime itself bending or warping, offering a cleaner explanation requiring fewer assumptions.
The rotating paper analogy mirrors light’s behavior. We can’t represent light as a wave propagating through a medium or a particle traveling through space. Instead, light emerges as a field interaction at a distance. This view explains the invariance of the “speed” of light and provides a unified framework for understanding wave-particle duality, entanglement, and “spooky action at a distance.”
Bob measures the photon 100 meters away in one second, and you measure the photon 200 meters away in two seconds. It doesn’t matter how fast you and Bob are traveling relative to each other or the light source; only your radial distance from the source determines the observation. The rotating paper analogy simplifies how we think about light, but how do we connect this abstract idea to a physical process in the real world?
Real World
How can we transfer the rotating paper analogy into real life? Different atoms aren’t connected by pieces of paper, are they? Of course not. But the analogy helps us visualize field interactions at a fundamental level. To briefly explain, indulge me in another speculation about how our understanding of electromagnetism might be incomplete.
While it’s true that positive and negative charges cancel each other out to result in zero net charge, I propose that the fields themselves don’t cancel. Instead, they combine, creating a neutral field that connects atoms and governs the interaction we call light. This neutral field may not only govern light but also influence inertia and gravity—a topic for future exploration.
When an atom undergoes an energy transition and releases a “photon”, the neutral field doesn’t propagate outward like a wave. Instead, the entire field rotates instantaneously. This rotation determines when a ‘photon’ of energy is transferred to another atom, based on the field intensity at varying radial distances—just like in the rotating paper analogy.
This perspective reframes how we think about photon interactions and opens the door to a deeper understanding of inertia, mass, and the fundamental nature of fields—a topic I’ll discuss later. This reinterpretation not only aligns with Maxwell’s equations but also challenges us to rethink the very nature of light.
Summary
The Michelson-Morley experiment exposed a fundamental problem with our classical understanding of light and motion, showing that light’s speed appears constant to all observers, regardless of relative velocity. Einstein’s solution—time dilation—revolutionized physics but defied analytical thinking about time. By reexamining light as a field interaction determined by radial distance, we can bypass the need for convoluted spacetime distortions while maintaining the invariance of light’s behavior.
The rotating paper analogy bridges abstract electromagnetic theory with intuitive visualization, demonstrating that light’s interactions depend on field intensities and relative distances, not velocities. This perspective challenges how we understand fields, suggesting that neutral fields connect atoms and govern the interaction we call light, operating at a radial distance—an idea reminiscent of “spooky action at a distance.”
This framework not only reinterprets light as a field interaction but also lays the foundation for exploring deeper truths about mass, motion, and the interconnected universe—concepts I’ll explore further in a book.
Stay present.