Spencer Heath Archive

Item 907

October 1955

Event — objective

The subject-matter of objective experience.

An event is discerned as having three kinds of magnitudes — measurable aspects — dimensions because divisible into three kinds of standard uniform units, the number of which units of any one kind in the event is that dimension of the event. (Standard units are the aspects of specific events accepted and agreed upon for quantitative comparison.)

The three measurable aspects of a happening or event are abstractions from it. No one or two of them apart from the third can constitute an actual action or event, any subject-matter of objective experience.

 

 

EVENT

ASPECTS                    UNITS

Mass                     Gram

Motion                   Centimeter

Time                     Second

CHARACTERISTICS OF ASPECTS:

Mass —   Force, Inertia

Motion — Length, Distance, Space

Time —   Rhythm, Repetition, Succession

 

 

               RELATEDNESS OF ASPECTS:

The measure of Mass units in an event is that number of them which is related to each unit of motion — Mass (force) per unit of motion.

The measure of motion units is that number of them which is related to each unit of time

The quantity of mass per unit of motion is the ratio of rate of mass or force to motion.

The rate of mass or force to motion times the total number of motion units in the event is the quantity of work.

The quantity of work per unit of time is the rate of work or energy rate in the event.

The rate of work, energy rate, times the total number of time units in the event is the total quantity of energy-in-action, or action in the event.

The ratio of work to time — quantity of work per unit of time — energy rate, determines the kind of action, happening or event.

 

The energy rate times the number of time units is the over-all dimension, the quantity of energy as action contained in the happening or event.

 

All objective events are kinetic. They involve motion, and motion involves time.

 

The quantity of motion per each unit of time, the rate of motion of any mass or particle as force is the velocity of that mass, particle or force.

Velocity, rate of motion, has objective significance only with reference to the mass particle or force, perceptible or imperceptible, that moves.

 

All actions, happenings, events involve mass, motion and time.

Mass or force and motion together constitute a quantity of work in the abstract, but the kind of action or work is dependent on its rate or ratio to time, on what quantity of action or work is related to one unit of time. And the quantity of action or work is dependent on and determined by the number of time or succession units involved in the action or event.

An action or event is a composition, an organization of mass (characterized by force or inertia) and motion (characterized by velocity) and duration (characterized by rhythm, repetition, discontinuity — time.

 

Every composition, structure, and organization takes some kind of form, be it wave, particle, atom, crystal, cell, plant, animal or star. They are not created, but are organized and composed and are susceptible of being disorganized, disintegrated, decomposed and re-composed. They are organized and composed in the same manner all other events, which, in fact, they are. /Sentence? check original/ For they are composed of mass having motion (or motions) in some ratio to a unit of time, and some certain number (small to enormous) of units of time ere they disintegrate and decompose.

Each is a system of action or work. The kind of action depends on the manner, the ratios, in which its motions of particles or mass, single or myriad, are related to time. And the total quantity of action is determined by its duration in units of time.

There are events that are similar in composition, structure and form and that occur in a temporal succession as do radiant waves or the generations of animals or men. In all these the kind of action is determined by the ratios in which its elements are composed; its period or duration by the