source file: mills3.txt Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 22:14:45 +0100 Subject: phonons, speculation From: John Chalmers Re Phonons: I thought phonons were essential to understanding solid-state physics, especially low-temperature superconductivity. In the mesoscopic realm, however, acoustic frequencies would form a continuum and are no longer quantized. One might suppose that the lowest possible non-zero frequency would be the one which forms a standing photonic wave in the whole universe considered as a Helmholtz or hollow, spherical resonator. Of course, this frequency diminishes as the universe expands, ultimately going to zero if the expansion continues, or stopping at some finite value if Omega is 1, and rising again if the universe re-collapses (which it probably won't). I doubt any universal acoustic waves could exist at the present epoch, but there must have been some before and just after the inflationary period. I don't know if standing gravitational waves are even possible, but there is another spectrum to consider. These speculations are probably more appropriate to Ray Tomes's Cycles List than Alternative Tuning. BTW, Ratbert in the Dilbert comic strip has discussed somewhat similar matters. Scott Adams may be satirizing the scientists who "dissed" the speculations in his latest book. (My apologies to those of you who don't see this comic strip in your daily newspapers). --John SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: "Paul H. Erlich" Subject: Stretching, beating, dissonance, and perfect JI PostedDate: 31-12-97 22:33:09 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 31-12-97 22:30:41-31-12-97 22:30:42,31-12-97 22:30:03-31-12-97 22:30:04 DeliveredDate: 31-12-97 22:30:04 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125657E.00762A0D; Wed, 31 Dec 1997 22:32:36 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA10523; Wed, 31 Dec 1997 22:33:09 +0100 Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 22:33:09 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA10541 Received: (qmail 3008 invoked from network); 31 Dec 1997 13:33:06 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 31 Dec 1997 13:33:06 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu