Before the invention of the “James Watt’s steam engine”, there was the “Thomas Newcomen steam engine”. Newcomen steam engine was also called the “Newcomen atmospheric engine” because the power that drove Newcomen engine came from both hot steam and cold steam/atmosphere. In each full cycle of the Newcomen engine, the piston had two strokes. One stroke was driven by <heat | hot steam> and the subsequent stroke was driven by <cool | cold steam & atmosphere>.
Alas, when the industrial revolution took off, James Watt’s steam engine ruled the day. James Watt became the star of the show on the historical stage. Newcomen’s body and his engine lies a-moldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on.
In modern science, especially in pre-20th century classical physics, the force of atmosphere and ambient environment has been largely ignored. Ever since Galileo Galilei dropped two iron balls from the leaning tower of Pisa, the first thing people considered as scientific advancement was to ignore the air resistance force described by Aristotle. The Newtonian gravity was based on an illusion neglecting air resistant forces in the surrounding air when apples or alike objects fell to the ground. Such negligence or ignorance of air resistance had persisted by scientific theorists and performing magicians for centuries, assuming such illusion, even if hiding in the back of their mind, or minds of students and audiences, would never be detected.
Then, a great scientist Albert Einstein, and a great magician Paul Dirac came along.
Realizing any object with mass can curve the spacetime, and the reactionary force of the bent spacetime would be exerting a reactionary force upon the massive object, Einstein interpreted gravity as a pressuring force coming from the spacetime – the ambient surrounding of the object. Out of such interpretation of gravity, General theory of relativity was born. The surrounding environment was no longer powerless, let along the near surface airy environment known as troposphere. The spacetime is collapsing towards any object with mass that is at rest. An object “at rest” is also known as “staying cool”. The spacetime or the atmospheric pressure is clinging tightly onto any object with mass, and that amount of pressure is surprisingly huge when accumulated, no matter how much Galileo and Newton influenced scientific communities wanting to ignore such forces when studying gravity.
Mostly, out of respects for Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and many great minds of the 20th century acted with ambiguity and hesitancy when interpreting experiments and observations that considered subjects in classical physics taught by Newton and followers. For instance, Einstein named the first quantum “photon”, but was later best known for his suspicion and repudiation of quantum mechanics. He introduced the cosmological constant, but later retracted the concept and called it one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Cosmological constant was later proven to be a good prediction of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, detected shortly before Einstein’s death. But he did not have interest to take credit for it, nor have enough healthy life left to blame himself one more time.
Due to the brilliance and overwhelming achievements of Albert Einstein, and the humble personality emanated from such a great scholar, many scientists of my generation inherited his doubts about quantum mechanics. If the quantum theory is still in doubt, then what’s the point in putting such susceptible theory into practice to build applications and engineering products in average households. Albert Einstein’s body did not lie a-moldering in the grave. It was even said that his brain was stolen after he died because somebody idolized him too much. The ghost of quantum mechanics lived on. And his soul goes marching on just like that of Thomas Newcomen’s.
We now live in the 21st century and as the Halloween was approaching this year, I thought it would be cool to decorate my haunted house with magic tricks I have learned from the real masters of quantum mechanics – that’s what a lot of people are calling the practitioners of quantum theory up until now – since Einstein and students doubted them as scientists.
If one Google “Paul Dirac” and “magic trick”, it is very likely find “Dirac’s belt trick”. The trick very rigorously and logically proves a post-modern mathematical concept: that when a x-y-z coordinate system is rotating around 0 on the x-y plane for a full spin, z axis would be rotating with a half spin. That means if observing within a confined system with less dimensions (in this case: z), movement and energy might come out of 0, when the other multiple dimensions (in this case: x and y) are moving. Zero can be divided into +0 and -0 in quantum mathematics. In other words, one can get energy out of 0, because 0 is a divisible group. The mathematical proof that 0 can generate fission, therefore fusion, when applied in physics and engineering means one can get energy out of nothing! Massless quantum like photons or phonons can have fission and fusion too! like ghosts. And the term “ghost” is how Einstein described quantum entanglement when he rejected quantum mechanics as a rigorous and complete scientific theory.
Thanks to “There’s no God and Dirac is his prophet” quantum mechanics, Prophet Dirac also invented the convenient bra-ket notation, a not-too-cryptic ghost language, to describe duality that permeates the dynamic spacetime. Come to think of it, for the past, at the present and in the future, the spacetime that we live in cannot be nondynamic. In dynamic Cartesian coordinate systems, <x,y,z, t . . . | -x, -y, -z, -t . . . > axis are superposed together and moving together constantly. The number 0 has <-0 | +0> superposed together along the <-x | +x> axis, <-y | +y> axis, <-z | +z> axis, etc. Matters are embedded in anti-matters; anti-gravity are embedded within gravity. Mankind just did not realize those duality pairs have been there all along, filled within the axis of <-t | +t> in history. The atmosphere has abundant serviceable force in them as <gravity | anti-gravity> or <gravity | levity> dual, which has been ignored for so long. What a shame humankind did not realize the beauty of Thomas Newcomen steam engine, especially the stoke powered by cool?! (Embedded in heat) Now that Prophet Dirac is living in peace, his soul goes marching on.
After James Watt’s Steam engine, “dynamics” are usually equivocated to “thermal dynamics”. Which is a great injustice to “Froyo dynamics” that is quantumly (digitally) superposed and magically hidden in the <thermal | froyo> duality. One very important concept in Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity is the concept of “reference frames”. When reference frames are switched, there are inertial forces or “fictious” forces coming out, which had been regarded as forces coming out of nothing and from nowhere. Switching of reference frame is a cool operation, with no mass, and only quantum amount of energy involved. From practical and engineering standpoints, the switching of reference frame in the Thomas Newcomen engine was as simple as switching between <in | out> duality. When the inner chamber of the engine was heated, hot steam would push the piston out. When the inner chamber of the engine was cooled, cold steam would pull the piston in.
For my haunted house to be energy efficient, I decided not to use fossil-fuel based energy from the power grid. “Cool” energy, “nothing” energy, or the force which powered one stroke in Thomas Newcomen steam engine is actually very powerful, but invisible to many. The <steam | atmospheric> duality without heating by coal or gasoline has always existed with humankind. At the sea level, with air temperature of 59 f, the standard atmospheric pressure is between 14 to 15 psi. If anyone can make the inside chamber of an engine cooler and less pressurized than that, the atmosphere outside would become relatively hotter steams, and would be rushing in, just like a stampede have been caused by the inner cool.
The powerful force of cool air and inhalation can be observed by the famous “vacuum and garbage bag” experiment, which is not any less powerful than force of hot air and exhalation as observed by the famous “boiling water and kettle” experiment. My engine would be able to come to life with chain-reactions of inhalation and exhalation cycles if designed properly, without detectable fuels.
Most engines today modeled after James Watt Steam engine, primarily use the force of exhalation. This is no surprise from the age of “singularity” and “Big Bang” theory. Duality and pulsation of <heating | cooling> had been mocked and disrespected along with Thomas Newcomen engine. Therefore, offspring of James Watt engine, such as: internal combustion engines, are mostly powered by large and bulky carry-on tanks with no intention or capability of recharging and refueling midair. These engines are like sprinters finishing out the entire race with one deep breath, the Big Bang type of athletes. Thinking it through, it is hard to imagine such awkward design ideas for power supply could have lasted very long, but today’s long distance traveling ships and airplanes are mostly operating with such singularity and Big Bang conception. Battery powered motors or jet fueled engines, have not resorted to the duality of <inhalation | exhalation> self-recharging through aerial metabolism. Packing the power source with higher and higher energy density materials for one trip, can only go so far, and ominously carry the cost of increasing risks of explosion hazards.
Almost four hundred years later, when revisiting the inhalation process in the Thomas Newcomen <steam | atmospheric> engine, the engine is revealing itself to be more and more ingenious. The stroke powered by cooling of steams would allow the steam engine to function equally well as the stroke powered by heating of steams. Yet that cooling stroke was powered without consuming any prepacked fuel. Had human history came down along this path, to extend the continuity and potential of this cooling power, or power of the outside environment, with help of inertial force and flying wheels (James Watt’s engine also relied heavily on flying wheels), we would have had “quantized atmospheric nuclear-powered” or “phonon nuclear powered” engine hundreds of years earlier.
This is the sort of “what-ifs” that historians often ponder about. History buffs may remember another “what-if” in steam engine development: Had humankind studied aeolipile earlier, would industrial revolution have had started much earlier? Now they can ask themselves another one: Had Thomas Newcomen engine especially its cooling stroke been studied more scrupulously; would concepts like “phonon”, “quantum nuclear”, <fission | fusion> duality, have emerged hundreds of years earlier?
Putting history aside and coming back to reality, what more can I improve over Thomas Newcomen engine for my haunted house? The inhalation and exhalation movements of the engine are also called “respire”, or “recharging spirit” in Latin. Thomas Edison once famously said, “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. That design ratio is no good for me. I want my machine to respire wisely, around 50.1% of inspiration and 49.9% of perspiration so it will not run out of “spirit” prematurely. I want my machine to always have more inspiration than perspiration, more intake than output, so it would not “expire”, run out of “spirit” or run out of “breath” too soon. Ideally a ghost surviving on spirit should at least live as lengthy as a pet, or to have enough spirits to keep running for about 10 years.
With such <inhalation | exhalation> cycle, the energy inside to sustain the breathing activities would keep on working happily (keep “being cool”) for days, years, or longer. In fact, the machine would not be able to sustain the inhalation without exhalation. The machine would work like a workaholic ghost. It cannot survive without working for others because <cooling | heating>, <resting | working> complements each other to form a duality. What a friendly ghost?! Casper, maybe, I should call it. Casper just cannot keep cool, without being friendly and helpful. Without workloads Casper cannot exhale.
Thanks to Dirac for the bra-ket notation, Casper can easily express himself clearly and concisely in this quantum language. The machine would run like a <dead | alive > engine just like a Schrodinger’s cat that was <dead | alive>. To visitors of my haunted house, they cannot observe the shape of Casper either. Things will be moving one their own powered by pressure differential in atmosphere that are purely quantum, abstractive and invisible. Air and atmosphere are trapped in the body of devices, same as in every living being. Organ like devices with trapped air formed the “cardiopulmonary system”, with spirits circulating inside. Spirits or “cold air”, “cold steam” inside are connected to atmosphere outside as an integral part, in Newcomen steam engine or Casper. The connection is a quantum connection invisible to visitors. Going forward, bionics has just acquired a new meaning: that is to mimic the function of ghosts, fairies, and spirits, with pneumatic tools, when tools are running on the power of cool.
The wall of Newcomen engine can be further modified to be made of elastic materials, instead of the usual metallic ones during construction. After this modification, the engine would look like a bellow or a heart, with trapped air (cold steam) and alveoli (sponge or bubble wrap) in its nucleus to keep a “vacuum”, “low-pressure”, “low-temperature” core inside. Such a cooling nucleus has the power of cool and condensation, absorbing energy from the moisture in the ambient air and adjusting the body <heat | cool> to the life sustaining level for the engine to run continuously for a long time, without burnout or heat exhaustion.
According to the theory of “relativity”, the “relatively” cool air inside, is converting the outside atmosphere into a heaven sized hot steaming engine, a.k.a. James Watt steam engine, hah ha ha! That heaven sized hot steam engine, supersized Casper, is hard to envision without theories of relativity and quantum. Maybe that is why is has been invisible ever since Thomas Newcomen envisioned it and then relatively quietly passed away.
The inner “cool” of Casper, the “vacuum” or “negative pressure-differential” runs by itself akin to human cardiopulmonary system. Our Casper cardiopulmonary system looks simpler than human’s, combining heart and lung together – with alveoli, atrium, ventricle, check valves – in one container. Since many people studying thermodynamics would be offended by the word “perpetual”, I would say Casper cardiopulmonary system is running a “chain-reaction”, froyo-nuclear reaction, to supply power.
Alveoli, sponge, or bubble wraps are in fact semiconductors for gas and liquids when conducting pneumatic flow in closed circuits, just like how salted silicone are semiconductors when conducting electric flow in closed circuits. The mechanism for one type of semiconductor causing pressure differential in pneumatic tools and machineries, is the same as for another type of semiconductor causing voltage differential in electric tools and machineries. Diodes are made of electric semiconductors to direct and control electro-magnetic induction in electronic devices. Check valves are made of pneumatic semiconductors to direct and control hydraulic-pneumatic induction in our phonon nuclear powered atmospheric engine. This is the grand design or master calculation of quantum duality, in different dimensional spaces, different coordinate systems, different reference frames, or different spacetimes.
Finally, when people enter my haunted house, they would see spacetime travel is impossible in the atomic and material world. The mass of the travelers and audiences would block them from going to any other spacetime. But spacetime travel is very feasible and happening right before their eyes in the massless quantum world because this is merely a spiritual journey. Visitors would not see any bodies of ancient engines, engineers, or scientists. But engines of 17th century that could inhale and exhale had clearly traveled through the spacetime from one end to another spiritually to our spacetime, carrying massless quantum. Ghosts of quantum mechanics are coming to live, pushing levers up and down, triggering devices calmly moving back-and-forth.
Downstream and connecting to compressed air tanks, pneumatic powered toys would be running “coolly” with their own mind or “mind of God” as Stephen Hawking wrote in the conclusion of “a brief history of time”. When searching upstream for the ultimate power source for the machines, all the moving toys are truly plugged into nothing but thin air. It is the cool hearts derived from Thomas Newcomen engine that were magically gathering and compressing ambient air into compressed air tanks to provide for the subsequent pneumatic power tools.
Ghosts and souls are assembling and demonstrating in a laboratory that is my haunted house. The massless souls of many ancient to modern intellectual giants are meeting in quantum superposition. I felt a chill in my body as I check on the face of visitors. Together we wondered, if hell is perceived to be a hot place or perhaps hotter than inside a James Watt steam engine. Then relative to that heat, ghost of Newcomen cannot get any hotter but only travel the other way – and stay cooler. The center of the universe used to be thought of as the Earth, then the Sun. . . but traveling to a spacetime far, far way in the future.
Increasingly, more and more people believe there is no single center for all galaxies, and there is no such thing as singularity, or one single event called Big Bang. The center of Milky Way is a blackhole; and it absorbs or inhales energy and material surrounding it. When a blackhole is filled with inhalation, it emits mass and energy with exhalation via “Hawking radiation” into the cosmic background. Then the cycle of respiration continues. And the power to drive that endless cycle of our Milky Way is?
It is the power of cool.
Quantum study is entering a phase of quantum engineering and quantum applications. Ghost and spirits of quantum mechanics are entering average homes across the globe. And the souls of Newcomen, Einstein, Dirac, and Hawking are marching on.
