A notebook bulletin board
tacked on when randomly bored
applied thoughts in a scribblebook
open for the world to look who passes by
so fast to see like a needle in a haystack we
safely stash those innermost secrets thought to be
at least you see languishing up and into pristine
blossoms for you to pick and sniff and hope
they don't make you sick.

12/26/08

The empty focus



Why no talk about the empty focus inherent to Kepler's assertion
that planetary motion about the sun is elliptical? It's no secret
the Sun is but one of two focuses inside the ellipse.

If the Sun's mass is responsible for the motion of its
planetary bodies encircling it, then it follows that there must be
an explanation accounting for the empty focus, and whether or not anything is there at all, or perhaps something like dark matter, energy, flow, or possibly a dark sun.

Four theories jump immediately to mind.

1. Perhaps the two focuses inside an ellipse are not in actuality
restricted to being mere "points", but rather, perhaps those two points are but static instances along an additional ellipse (or circle) which describes the Sun's own path. (Just the next logical step in the progression of the next dimensional order of complexity.)

2. Perhaps the empty focus is the point where a dark sun occupies.

3. Perhaps the empty focus is the ideal spot to place a hidden camera. [Such a monitoring device may have been hidden here by this system's Creator(s), to keep tabs on us, for example.]

4. The most intriguing theory to me, and seemingly less paranoid (yet also more improbable), is this. What if the empty focus were the actual location of a holographic projector device which is responsible for creating the illusion of what we perceive to be our solar system, universe, or even reality? Bear with me while I make the necessary points for these postulations to be considered as being within the realm of possibility.

If you were to fashion an elliptical pool table (for instance) and then identified the two focus points, first placing a pocket (for the pool balls to drop into) at one of the focuses, and then putting a marker (for a pool ball to be placed on) at the other focus, something quite interesting is set up to occur. Place a pool ball on the marked focus point and then shoot it in any direction whatsoever, and it will always bounce off the inner wall of the ellipse and travel directly into the pocket where the other focus lies.

The implications for how this might affect our understanding of our solar system are intriguing to me. Since our Sun is at one of the focuses, that means that all the light which emanates from the Sun, were it to "bounce off the inner walls" of earth's elliptical trajectory, would then be reflected directly into the empty focus (which counterbalances the Sun's position). This observation of course can work both ways (hence my theory of a possible holographic projector at the empty focus instead).

Two things immediately come to mind. The first is that the empty focus might be a perfect place where a cosmic Designer might place a hidden camera. I haven't figured out the mathematics but its possible this spot might remain well hidden from the prying eyes of astronomers, I don't know. The second thing is that the empty focus could be the position of a holographic projector which is responsible for projecting the image of our universe (or solar system) to us. i.e, a sort of artificial machine which projects "the matrix", to coin a contemporary popular term.

These amusing speculations aside, the real concern which first must strike the conspicuous observer, is that arc which describes the progress of history's astronomers' initial observations. It has been said that one may begin drawing a circle at any point, so I will begin with Galileo having theorized about the possible heliocentric nature of our planetary orbits, then move on to Kepler's slight correction of these pathways into an ellipse (by necessity including now two focuses rather than the original single focus of the Sun resting in the direct center of a circle). Hence the most obvious and first order of speculation must be the admission of a (most likely high) probability that Kepler, too, may have been mistaken (albeit further along the path towards the truth). Herein is where we must consider the possibility that both Galileo's (circle) theory and Kepler's (ellipse) theory are but the first two relatively crude steps towards our having discovered the true(r) nature of these planetary motions.

The most likely explanation for the empty focus point in our own solar system, in my opinion, is the first of the four theories described above. The theory which states the empty focus is nothing but a static point along the path of our Sun's own trajectory.

Which brings me to the consideration of a thesis. The objective of the thesis would be to distinguish whether Kepler's ellipse theory is actually correct or if, indeed, he merely succeeded in shading one more dimension of the model which will eventually be completed by a current or future astronomer. Upon considering the possibilities myself, I tend to think there is still much to work out about this model of the motions of our universe's celestial bodies.

To bring this matter into proper perspective, allow me to chart our progress of these models for celestial movement via dimensional analogy. I will ascribe the "1st dimensional step" towards solving this puzzle to Galileo (a point = heliocentric), and the "2nd dimensional step" to Kepler (the two focus points make a line = elliptical); therefore, its a relatively simple matter to plug in the "3rd dimensional step" to whomever is credited with having made the discovery (a 3rd focus whose inclusion would better describe cubic space = the next theory, i.e, holographic).