Spencer Heath Archive

Item 96

Pencil by Heath on notepad paper, identified as a “fresh start.” Because not set apart from his earlier start, there is repetitive material here. Originals envelope includes a page of diagrammatics that could not readily be transcribed and requires photocopying.

No date

 

 

(fresh start)

     In the objective trinity of the physical sciences, Mass combines with motion to form energy, which is an abs-traction, and energy combines with time to form the concrete reality which is an action.

     Mass, motion and time being not infinitely divisible but discontinuous both in their abstract selves and when they concrete into action, then: Any unit-quantity of action, such as the kilowatt-hour or the erg-second, is a high multiple of the fundamental unit of action. So any conventional unit of mass, such as a pound or a gram, must be a multiple of some fundamental and indivisible unit of mass, so any unit of motion, such as a centimeter or a foot, must be a multiple of some fundamental unit of motion, and so also any unit of time such as an hour or a second must be a multiple of some fundamental unit of time.

     In this objective trinity of the physical sciences, mass in its attribute of force or inertia combined with motion becomes the abstraction that is called energy; and energy combined with time becomes action, which is concrete actuality. Mass, motion and time being not infinitely divisible but being discontinuous both in their abstract selves and when they unite into concrete action, then:

 

     Just as any unit quantity of action such as a kilowatt-hour or an erg-second is a high multiple of the fundamental unit of action (h), so any conventional unit of mass, motion or time, such as the gram, centimeter or second is some high multiple of some fundamental unit in its particular one of those three abstract and all-inclusive categories.

     Since these three elements of action are categorical each must be related or relative exclusively to the other two, and since they manifest themselves in a definite order of succession there is a first, a second, and a third member and there is first, a primary, second, an intermediate, and, third, a final or ultimate and concrete relationship. Since mass is primary it is related immediately to motion and only mediately to time. Motion then is the mediator between mass and time. Mass may be related abstractly to motion alone and motion may be related abstractly to time alone, but only in their complete integration does actuality, in the concrete reality called action, arise. An integration of mass and motion alone is the abstraction called energy; integration of motion and time alone is the abstraction called velocity; but an entire integration of the three is a manifestation of the abstract and metaphysical into the objective world wherein all concrete experience is.

     It follows from all this that any concept of mass always implies some magnitude of motion and any concept of motion implies some magnitude of time. A quantity of force as so many acting or actual pounds (or as so many grams as dynes) implies a quantity that is related to a unit of motion and if the quantity of motion involved is stated in units of motion (such as feet or centimeters) then the number of motion units is a number of times that the quantity of mass is to be taken as mass-motion or energy units. Hence, mass units times motion units gives energy units.

     Likewise, a quantity of energy as so many pounds-feet or dynes-centimeters (ergs) implies a quantity that is related to a single unit of time and if the quantity of time involved is stated in units of time then the number of time units is the number of times that the quantity of energy is to be taken as energy-time or action units. Hence energy units times time units gives action units.

     However, if the quantity of energy is stated in terms of more than a single implied unit of time — as a quantity or duration and not as a ratio or relationship, then the quantity of energy must be converted by division into such quantity as is associated with a single unit of time. It is this unit quantity of energy that when multiplied (not divided) by any stated quantity of time gives the quantity of action that objectively transpires. Just as a number of pounds associated with a number of feet must be taken as that number of pounds per each single foot, so a number of energy units must be taken as the number or quantity of these units per unit of time before any quantity of action can be ascertained during any period, quantity or number of units of time.

     We have now examined precisely how, by employment of units of mass, motion and time, a quantity of action is ascertained. But we know that all action is not alike even if the same quantities of energy and of time are involved. For equal quantities of action there may be as many different kinds of action as there are differences in the quantities and proportions of the mass, motion and time involved. If in each of a number of instances of equal quantities of action equal quantities of time are involved then the dif­ferences in the qualities of the actions may be as great and as many as there are differences in the energy involved. But these differences cannot be in the quantities of energy for if the quantities of action are equal and equal time is involved then the several energies also must be equal. The differences must lie in the proportions in which the respective elements of mass and motion are united into the equal energies. Equal quantities of action having indivisible units of mass, motion and time in even so small a number as 12 can be combined in as many as 17 different proportions while the total product remains constant at 12. When we con­sider that the ultimate indivisible units of mass, motion and time are imperceptibly and almost infinitesimally small, we can feel what vast numbers of them must be statistically involved in any action that is perceptible by direct experience or even with the aid of instruments of the utmost delicacy and precision, and we can realize something of the practically infinite number of qualitatively dif­ferent proportions in which that vast number of the primary units could be combined. And when we consider that there is no reason even to suspect any limits to the numbers of the fundamental units that exist in the basic categories of mass, motion and time — that there are any limits on the quantities of force, motion and time in the whole realm of nature — the quantities and varieties of action in the total Reality must be unimaginably if not infinitely large.

     What has been said thus far about the qualitative aspect of physical action or reality, depending on relative proportions in which its fundamental elements are combined, has taken no account of quality or of qualitative change in its two opposite, positive and negative, aspects nor has it suggested any criterion whereby to distinguish and thus perhaps to separate them. We have noted that there is an order or succession of mass, motion and time corresponding with the order of our perception of them and that motion is the mediator or middle term between mass or force and rhythmic duration or time.

     The elements of action organize and reorganize themselves, according to our perceptions, into structures, atomic and others, on the one hand, and into radiation or waves on the other hand, depending on whether the mass (or particle) element is perceptible to us as such

or is not.

     Now when action is so structured that its elements constitute a closed rhythmic system, atomic, molecular or organic, having obvious mass, interactions within itself, and a total period or duration indefinitely or indetermin­ately long, such structures are apprehended by us primarily as mass and only secondarily as including motion and time. But when the organization is such that the mass element is in general imperceptible to us while its motion or length element and its time or frequency element (period or fre­quency of its disintegration and reintegration) is both perceptible to us and susceptible of precise measurement, such organization of action is called radiation or waves. The chief difference is that in the closed system the action, while it endures, is circular and closed whereas in the radiant or open wave system the action is radial and expand­ing. The two are doubtless mutually convertible by reproportioning of their elements, all that is structure having been radiation and, perhaps, the converse, the rhythm within the closed system corresponding with the frequency of the open or radiant system from which it evolved.